I'll Be Your Reason to Be My LoveHarryStyles
by KatelynKat
Summary: When average 17 year old Evie meets and befriends unknowingly celebrity new-comer Harry Styles, will this friendship have it's benefits? Or will it blossom into something much more? The story of a troubled teenage girl who happens to fall in love with Harry Styles of One Direction.
1. You Will Meet a TallDarkBritish Stranger

**I'll Be Your Reason To Be My Love**

_**Chapter One:**_

_**You Will Meet a Tall Dark British Stranger **_

_**February 14**__**th**__**, 2011**_

Today has got to be absolutely, irrevocably the worst day of my entire existence. Not only is it singles awareness day (also known as a little thing called Valentine's Day), but it's a Sunday. And in my opinion, Sunday's are sort of obligated to be the worst day of the week. Is it the irritable quality of people creating avoidance to the true worst day of the week, Monday? Who knows. After a moment of self-wallowing in taking in the fact that it's Sunday, I look over to my nightstand. The clock reads in bright red numbers that's almost blinding, 4:15. Why am I at home when it's a regular gloomy day in London? I roll over in my bed and decide to emerge from the dead. From glancing at my little nightstand I can't help but notice the picture of me and my boyfriend in front of Big Ben. Ugh.

All right, now I know all of you are probably like 'why is she groaning about single awareness day when she has a boyfriend?' Well, maybe I should've started with the beginning of my day.

* * *

Derek, my boyfriend, came knocking at my door at bloody nine o'clock in the morning, exclaiming that he wanted to take me to the new grand opening of some fancy restaurant I didn't bother enough to remember the name of. My mother, being a hopeless romantic ever since my father divorced her, urged me to go. I gave in to her tired, hazel eyes and galloped out the door.

Breakfast went swimmingly well, I thought. I ordered my favourite: blueberry pancakes with a chocolate milkshake.

Right in the middle of me taking a gigantic bite out of my triple stacked breakfast, Derek took my hand. This kind of forced me indirectly to put the fork down and look up at him. "Yes?" I asked my mouth full of syrupy goodness.

"We need to talk," he said taking in a deep breath, still not letting go of my hand.

I figured it had to be something important, since you know; I had to stop stuffing my face. "Oh, okay." I decided to take a polite approach towards it since he was the one who brought me to this heavenly place. "What's on your mind?" I flashed a tiny smile, trying to show a spark of interest in his words. We've been together so long that he knows better not to interrupt my food time.

"I think we should stop seeing each other." He finally let go of my hands.

I laughed a little. "You know that's for April fools not Valentine's day, ya silly." I picked up my fork again in my joking tone. I punctured the pancakes and put the fork to my mouth when Derek stopped me yet again. God, he was getting on my nerves now.

"No, I'm, I'm serious, Evie." At this, I raised my head to look him straight in his deep brown eyes that always stinted a sparkle when stared into. But it seemed as if they were hazed over, since all I saw this time when I looked into them was a black nothingness. Yep, he was definitely and completely truthful. My eyes widened at this realization.

"What?" My voiced dropped two tones as I gulped down my last mouthful of pancakes. I suddenly lost my appetite as it was replaced by huge butterflies in my stomach. "Why?"

"I need my distance, it seems as if I think about you too often and I can't focus on anything else…but I don't even see how that is since you never seem to listen to a bloody thing I say anymore…and you've become rather boring . . . " he trailed off. What was this nonsense that he was speaking?

"What are you talking about; I listen to you all the time!" If anything, he's the one that doesn't listen to me.

"Really, Evie? When's my dad's birthday?"

Oh, please. He's going to interrogate me? Can't even enjoy the rest of my breakfast.

"I don't know, Derek when's mine's?" Ha, give it back to him.

"You haven't talked to him in 12 years much less acknowledge the day he was born," he threw at me, quite know it all like. "It's tomorrow, Evie. How can I be in a relationship with you for so long when you don't even know things like that?" He looked at me with those deep brown eyes again and looked hurt.

"What kind of man animal breaks up with a girl on Valentine's day?" I shot at him throwing my napkin up from my lap to the table whilst grabbing my purse while running out of the joint. Good thing for me it was pouring outside.

I could hear Derek screaming behind me asking if I was going to pay for that. What a dou—duffel bag. ..I seriously cannot swear for my life. As if!

I noted that he was my ride home so it's either walk a million blocks home or take the bus. Well, since I don't know my way home from this dingy place, the bus it is.

Terrific thing that the next bus is in a half hour, it's pouring outside and that there's someone else sitting under the bus bench already. Thanks to my social awkwardness I kind of don't want to sit next to her. But this rain is freezing—curse my body temperature. As I make my way over to the bench, I notice that my terrible eyesight has failed me the person sitting there already is in fact an adolescent teenage boy. His pushover of a mane of what he calls hair is completely wild and not at all matted by the wet weather. Whereas, my light brown hair has turned black and stick straight as if I just stepped out of the shower. Ugh, just what I need.

I take a seat next to him, as society doesn't pay much for lousy benches to have them sized to longer than bloody 6 inches, or so it seems. I stare straight ahead as raindrops fall onto the dampened old, gray road. From the corner of my peripheral vision I can see the boy staring at me dumbstruck. This isn't awkward at all. Please don't say anything . . .

As if by miracle, my cellphone starts ringing. I swing my purse off my left shoulder to open it and fish for my iPhone. It's Annabel, my best friend. Oh God. I press the green phone button and greet her.

"Hey girly! How'd the date go?" I can hear her smile through the phone widen as I sigh.

"Try absolutely horrid," I spat out. I looked down at my shoes. My favourite heels are practically all scuffed from all the walking. I push some hair behind my ear.

"What! What the hell happened?" She's squeaking. Due to her high pitched voice it rises even higher when she's excited or angered or confused, or at pretty much any mood other than normal.

"He dumped me for absolutely no reason at all on Valentine's day, no big deal," My voice only has a hint of sarcasm in it. I don't nearly seem as bothered as I should be, even though I absolutely adore…well did adore Derek.

I realized I said this loudly when a complete stranger was next to me. A little bit of my shyness takes over me and I blush.

"He's such an—"

"Yeah, yeah, Bells I know I gotta go. I'll talk to you later, bye." I hang up hastily. That was a bit harsh but we've been friends for eight years I'm sure she'll understand. Besides, I kind of just want to be in my own silence at the moment and catch up on a few winks. I lean back in this rather uncomfortable bench chair and shut my eyes for what seems like a moment.

* * *

I gain my consciousness with my eyes still shut at last but feel abnormally warm and secure . . . and cushiony. I twist my head inward and to the side a bit …something soft is surrounding my head and it's warm as well. Really warm. What? I open my eyes slightly and see a seat in front of me as well as the feeling of bumpy road underneath me. Evidently I'm on the bus. Don't recall getting here . . . I reach up to touch my head but my hand thwarts straight into something soft but strong at the same time. What the..? I motion to move up a bit when something beneath me moves slightly. My eyes widen. Am I on a person! I shift all the way up and turn around. My eyes widen even more as my jaw drops open. It's the boy from the bus stop. I was sleeping on him for oh, God knows how long.

"Look who's finally awake!" He exclaims like he's happy to see me. Do I even know him? His hazel eyes gleam in the light.

"Go- I am so sorry! I don't really know what entirely happened but I never meant to—"

"I know, I felt bad and couldn't help but overhear your conversation earlier." This boy definitely has the deepest voice I have ever heard in my life. But not in a creepy way. It's low with tints of kindness and tenderness in it. He grasped a handful of his untamed hair in his left hand and attempted to settle it behind his ear. After a second, it sprung up to the front of his eyes again. He looked up at it annoyingly and then bowed his head down to fluff it to the opposite side.

He noticed my urge of keeping the silence for the past couple of minutes and added, "I would've hated for you to miss your bus, you seemed to be having a pretty bad day as it is."

What exactly was he on about? He doesn't know me at all, much less care about my whereabouts on a day as sucky as this one. I furrow my eyebrows in confusion and open my mouth to say something. I stumble on my words for a second, losing my train of thought in this boy's massive hazel eyes. "Ehm," I exhale loudly, "you don't even know me."

He smiles a somewhat crooked smile and switches his gaze from me and looks straight ahead for a moment then back down at me. I realize I still have my head in his lap. A wave of embarrassment flushes over me as I lift my head slowly, trying to make circumstances as less awkward as possible. He just chuckles at my attempt.

Seeing as I'm having trouble getting up, he cups his hand under my head gently, giving me a boost. What a great story this will be to tell Annabel, how a complete stranger came to my rescue at the local bus stop.

"I'm Harry, and you are?"

I contemplate whether or not I should lie. _Stop it, Evie of course you shouldn't . . . it doesn't seem like he's going to rape you or is capable of any type of molestation. _"Evie."

He smiles a bit, "That's cute." He pauses and expects me to say something. No words are coming to mind so I pull my gaze from him to my right side and sigh. I look down and notice my purse and bend down to pick it up. Once I settle myself in my seat properly he continues on, "So now we know each other."

A hint of a smile sparks upon my lips slightly. "That's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?" He leans closer to me but I keep my distance.

"I don't know." I shy away and keep staring at my feet. Maybe if I don't say anything for a while he'll get the hint, leave me in my silence and soon enough this bus will be in my neighbourhood.

"Then tell me why a pretty girl like you is alone at a depressing bus stop on Valentine 's Day?" Wow, getting nosy are we. . . can't he tell that I _don't _want to be bothered? I mean, it was genuinely nice of him to even get me on this bus and do all that he's done for me but he could have just simply woke me up. Then I wouldn't be so associated with him and he'd just be a nice stranger you meet at the bus stop. But of course not, he had to act like my freaking prince charming.

"It's complicated, I guess . . . " I didn't even want to talk about my situation to my best friend of eight years let alone confess my unhappiness to a person I've known less than twenty minutes.

"Well, we've got time seeing as this bus isn't stopping anytime soon." His face has been serious for the past few minutes as he studied my face and I automatically felt insecure. I must look like a complete wreck, this is fantastic.

He looks at me with soul deep green eyes and with that look I can tell _exactly _where this is going. And where it will go if I let it happen. But I most certainly won't.

"Oh, please. Like you actually care. Look, it was extremely nice of you to help me as you did, since most people wouldn't give me a second thought. And I appreciate it very much so but I would greatly love to be alone for the remainder of this bus ride." Hopefully that didn't come across to him as rude as it sounded.

"I do care," he says grimacing slightly, ignoring the rest of what I said.

"And as I've said, that's very thoughtful of you but I think it'd be best if I just uhm, sit somewhere else," I say in a heap, digging for my purse, slipping my shoes back on quickly. Before I get up, I add, "Nice to meet you again." Just as I make a beeline for seat located all the way in the back, I feel a warm hand on my bare forearm.

"If you're going to do that, at least let me be the one to leave so I don't feel like a total jerk." He smirks a bit at the last word. He unbuckles his seat belt immediately and stands up awkwardly.

As he stumbles to get past me I shake my head vigorously. A wave of pity rushes through me and I look up at him. "Forget it, it's fine. I'm the one acting like a jerk here." He stares at me blankly for a moment and then slowly backs up towards his seat and plops himself down. "It's just my boyfriend just broke up with me an hour ago and I'm just trying to figure out why I'm not as bummed as I should be …"

"Who would dump their girlfriend on Valentine's Day?" Harry seemed like only some type of low life loser would do such a thing like that but I somewhat get the vibe from him that he's most likely done it before.

But, whatever. At least he was actually pretending to take an interest in my dull life. I sigh. "I've never liked the holiday, personally. I think a boy should treat his girl special—"

"—Everyday, not just one day of the year where they're given an excuse to do so."

My eyes widen at him, shocked. Maybe Harry's not just your average duffel bag. "Exactly!" I exclaim and I think a thing called a smile forms on my mouth for the first time today. "Part of me thinks he left me because I've sort of become boring, and actually I suppose I have." As soon as the words escape my lips I know they're true. I'm even beginning to bore myself. All I do all day is go to school, go on Facebook, chat for an hour, go on twitter, tweet a few messages and then the rest of my day consists of Tumblr. The internet pretty much is my entire world. No wonder Derek broke up with me.

"That's not true, from what I've seen you seem like a very interesting . . . beautiful girl."

Whoa. Okay, what was that? Did this boy who I've known for around a half hour call me beautiful? I felt my cheeks redden like they were on fire. It's amazing how one word could have such an impact on a person. Unaware of what to say, I look down and lick my lips, getting shy again. I don't say anything for a while, lost in the bittersweet sound of silence. I look all around the floor, my eyes scattering from place to place as if it will give me something to say. I'm lost in a sea of thought.

The next thing I know the back of Harry's hand is placed on my left cheek as he slowly moves it up toward my cheekbone, flipping it so that his palm is placed on my face and his fingers are at the tip of my upper cheekbone. He uses this interaction to turn my head gently to the left so that I'm facing him. His eyes drag from my eyes to my lips as he gradually leans in; our faces nearly an inch apart. When he doesn't see me moving in any closer he makes the ultimate move to make our lips meet each other. Harry pressed his lips to mine firmly but also very softly. I was first astounded by this since I usually NEVER do something like this but I actually found myself kissing him back with full force after a moment. I have absolutely no idea what has gotten into me but I'm actually quite enjoying it.

After a minute or two, Harry pulled away but his face was still dangerously close to mine. He stares at me intently, a hint of a smile peaking upon his face. I laugh briefly like an idiot. Was that supposed to be some type of pity kiss? I have to find out. So I press my lips together before opening them to say, "Am I a moron for liking that?"

He shoots me a goofy like 'are you crazy' but then softens his features to a more serious tone. "Absolutely not, since I like you more."

* * *

_**So there you have it the first chapter of my new fic. I will be updating this tomorrow, or rather today since it's after midnight xD. In case you didn't catch on this is taking place in the UK and I am currently living in the U.S. therefore I do not go by the same times. What I mean is, while it might be 2 A.M. here you people in the UK may say something like its 16:00. So in this fic if I use U.S. time I'm terribly sorry for the confusion! :C Anyhow, this fic is ENTIRELY based off of the blog, imagineharrystyless (.) tumblr (.) com/ that is pretty much where I got my inspiration and this fic was actually inspired by one of their posts. **_


	2. Harry, Student IDs,& Perfect Snogging

I'll Be Your Reason To Be My Love

_**Chapter Two:**_

_**Harry, Student I.D.s, and Perfect Snogging**_

_**February 14th, 2011**_

After a rather divine snog-filled bus ride with Harry, it was at my stop. The bus came to a gentle halt as the breaks made a squeak noise. I then heard the sound of the exhaust resting and the bus was no longer moving. I felt Harry's smile against my lips as I broke the kiss, but still remained so close to his face that our lips were half an inch apart.

"Do you have to go?" his voice was so low that if you weren't right in front of him you wouldn't hear a word he was saying.

Honestly, I considered it for a minute. I could remain on this bus forever, or at least for the rest of the day for that matter. I'll have to face my mother's nagging interrogation of what happened between Derek and I. I'll have to explain what happened all over again to Annabel, finish my schoolwork, and then prepare for my speech on the debate team tomorrow.

I still need to rehearse in front of the mirror which is why I'm reluctant to whisper slightly louder, "I do."

I stare at him, as if burning his face in my mind for a moment. I then turn, bend down to pick up my oversized bag, and run out of my seat down the aisle. I place my right hand firmly on the handle to help get down the stairs and glance back at Harry as he flashes me a quick smile. Upon seeing this, I jump off the bus and skip down the gloomy road (at least it stopped drizzling) to get to my house.

So now here I am, still that same bloody Sunday only it's 4:33 p.m. And my life couldn't be worse for numerous reasons:

1.)I was stupid enough to forget to give Harry my number

2.)Harry didn't give me his number or a last name either so therefore I have no way of contacting him so I'll probably never see him again.

3.)I lost my student I.D. which I need.

4.)I completely bombed my forensic science homework so I'm pretty much a dead man..er, woman.

Instead of getting off my lazy butt like I should, I just sink further into the covers of my bed, as if that'll save me.

_ **February 15th, 2011**_

I'm standing to the side of the stage, taking deep breaths as I prepare for my speech in about five minutes. I have to persuade the audience that the use of technology is a great, wonderful, fantastic thing to have in all school systems. My opponent is pretty bloody amazing, I must say, which is partially why I'm somewhat nervous. I never get nervous, so this is big.

As soon as I hear the audience clapping fiercely, I take this as my cue. I'm dressed in my plaid skirt with knee high socks, looking like a schoolgirl. Debate team requires this ridiculous get up, but it has its perks at times. I quickly adjust the headband on my head so that my hair is out of my face.

I step up to the podium at center stage as I clear my throat. I set my pages upright on the arch and look up to the audience to make eye contact. My pages consist of jumbled notes that sparks remembrance in my brain, so I don't really have to write much.

"My topic of the use of technical devices has taught me something significant. I've learned that whilst computers may be, in fact—" I pause to look up at the audience, skewering over every person. "—the only resourceful sense of—" While I was saying this and looking into the audience, I noticed one person who seemingly stood out of the crowd. And by God, I would recognize that wild hair _anywhere._But the instant I noticed that Harry was in the crowd, I felt tense. I kind of froze in place. He smiled at me with that perfect twisted look and—

Bugger. I can't remember what I was just going to say… I look down at my papers in a jumble, praying that some of the gibberish I scribbled will help me. Wait a minute. This is _not_what I wrote…this is a rebuttal on why the washrooms shouldn't be locked. Who the—no. I did _not_take Annabel's …yep I did take her notes. Why is this happening, it has _never_happened before and it probably never will since I'm going to get kicked off the team because I have nothing to say.

"The only resourceful sense of," I clear my throat, trying to think of any word to use, "sensibility. Yes, that powerful feeling that _you_are in control of the mouse and the keyboard and yes, it's a wonderful thing and uhm, if you'll excuse me…" I ran off the stage and out the backdoor to get some fresh air.

Just my luck, it was POURING outside. I always have this great luck. I swear the weather is against me. But never mind that, I just totally blew my chances at getting into a good college. Possibly. I can't believe I just did that. I throw the headband that has been bothering me for so long on the soaked ground and don't give it a second thought.

The heat of what I've just done hits me as it flashes through my body. My eyes well up with tears and I promised myself I wouldn't do this. So I run. And run. And run. Into the woods across the street from the school. As I sprint to cross the street, I quickly unhinge the "DEBATE TEAM" pin from my maroon jacket and drop it on the road hoping a car comes to run it over and destroy it. When I get to the sidewalk I throw my hair pin on the ground as well. As if ridding myself of these items will erase my memory. I finally reach the woods where I lay myself against a tree trunk and slide down to sit on the dirt on the ground.

Probably ruining my skirt but I could care less right now. I'm never going to get a scholarship to the college I want. My hair fell in front of my face as I shed a few tears. Besides the patter of rain, the forest was dead silent. That's why when I heard the crunching of branches and tree leaves being stepped on, I flinched so much. I slowly raised my head to get the hair out of my face. I wiped my moist face on my sleeve quickly under both eyes. I blinked and saw that it was Harry.

How did he even manage to get here or find me? I wanted to ask so many questions. But I didn't. I stayed silent because my mouth couldn't connect with my brain and make words.

Harry took note of my silence and didn't say anything either. Instead he walked toward the tree that I was parked under and stood there staring at me as I had a blank expression on my face towards the tree that was directly in front of it. I took in a loud deep breath and shakily exhaled. I felt a warm hand on my back. It was comforting to see that he cared so much but I couldn't handle the frustration at the moment and squirmed away.

He noticed my movements and said, "I'm sorry."

"Who are you?" I spat out. I was done with these games. Especially after what happened today.

He blinked at me twice with a blank expression on his face, "…You don't remember me?"

"Of course I remember you." I decided that saying something short, sweet, and to the point was the best way to go about this conversation. I didn't say anything more.

"Then, I don't understand."

"I don't know a bit about you other than the fact that you . . . you make me nervous." I decided to just spit the bloody words out. I was in no mood for playing games, as I've said before.

Harry smiled that crooked smile of his, another little thing that I _did_know about him. I could tell he got amusement out of this. "I make you nervous?"

What was there an echo in here? "Yes! You do!" I exclaimed, fed up with this conversation already.

"Right then, so tell me how could I make you nervous when you've already said you don't know a thing about me?" He stuck his hands in his pockets and kneeled down next to me on the ground.

"I don't know. That's partially what scares me too. And the fact that you pop up everywhere," I smirked slightly and turned to look at him. He was looking down at the ground this time, his hands still buried in his pockets. He had a sly smile slapped across his face.

"You make me nervous too . . . like a tingly feelin' in the pit of my stomach, yeah?" he laughed at the cheekiness of his own comment. But he had me spot on.

"Yeah…it was especially horrible in there." I laughed at my own pity. "I, like, couldn't breathe. Couldn't even finish my speech..." _Shut up, Evie. Don't think about it.._

"I thought you were great. . . up until, well, you know . . ." He looked at me briefly, then at the ground again and furrowed his eyebrows as if deep in thought. "I can totally relate though, it must be pretty nerve-racking." He seemed as if he truly knew what I was going through, which did make me feel a little bit better.

"You've no idea. I just feel like . . . " At this point, I've pretty much screwed everything and let the tears flow freely from my eyes. And of course it started raining even more now, so much that it seems like a downpour. I suppose I've gotten used to it but honestly, I could do without it. I sniffled and finished my sentence, "I feel like I've sort of let everyone down." I huddled my body with my arms, it was rather cold out today.

At this, Harry didn't really know what to say so he saw that I was shivering and offered me his jacket. I felt a little awkward taking it, but accepted since I was freezing to death and thanked him. After a moment he said, "Do you not want to go back inside?"

"Are you kidding me? And face that embarrassment? No thank you!" I made my hands gesture as in "NO WAY." Harry had apparent amusement from this as he laughed a few times.

"You're a funny girl." Could he seriously get any more cheesy… I'm not going to complain though. I need something to lift my spirits, in the slightest. I noticed Harry leaning in to me slightly, gradually increasing his speed after every second. In less than a minute, he was an inch away from my face.

I knew where this was going. And this time I was _certainly_going to stop it.

But God…look at that face and those eyes and those dimples . . . I gave in, I'm ashamed to admit. I kissed him for ten seconds but then pulled away. His eyes shot open, and I smiled a bit. "As I've said before I usually don't do this type of thing. . . and I know literally _nothing_about you."

"I know . . . I just . . . I like kissing you . . . but I promise you will get to know me. Please, I want to take you on a proper date. Say tomorrow? I want to know everything about you."

At this, I sighed slightly. Was I really ready to just go out with another one of these same boys who would just end up breaking my heart or dumping me in the street, not bothering to care anymore? Would going out with Harry really be worth it?

I mean, I knew we had some sort of connection by the way I felt when we kissed but I couldn't stop seeing myself as some type of slut if I continued to do this sort of thing without even knowing anything about him. For all I know he could be some type of pervert or player or heartbreaker or something. I didn't know. "I'm not so sure if that's such a good idea for me right now." I responded truthfully. No matter how much I did want to go out with him, I was only setting myself up for pure failure.

"It's a date. One date, I'm not asking for anything more. It's not a marriage proposal, Evie," he paused as he chuckled to himself, "at least, not yet it's not."

I took the arm of his jacket that was hanging loose around me and smacked him with it. "Maybe if you stopped talking like that, I'd be a little more willing," I threw at him, a hint of a smile sparking upon my lips.

He took his hand and rubbed in between his eyebrows, annoyed with himself and looked down with a smirk. He didn't say anything for a few seconds, and then his head lifted right up. "So is that a yes?" Ugh him and his reverse psychology!

"Fine, if you're going to be so annoying about it!" I just semi wanted to shut him up while revealing a little of my real feelings all at once.

His face lit up at this, and he smiled widely, making his face look overall goofy. "See you already know something about me, apparently I'm annoying!"

I stuck out my tongue at him and noticed that the rain had let up after all of this. It was now a little bit of a partly cloudy day. I couldn't help but wonder if that was a little bit of fate. Nevertheless, I slipped Harry's loose jacket off of me, revealing my skimpy little sweater that was now soaked with water. I threw it back at him, since it was kind of heavy and he caught it perfectly. I noticed something fall out of his pocket as the jacket was in the air. He bent down quickly to pick it up. He looked at it a moment and then gasped.

"I forgot to tell you! I think this belongs to you." He handed me a plastic little card like item. My face was beaming. It was my Student I.D.! He had found it. Thank GOD! One thing I can now successfully cross off my stress causing list.

I jumped from my excitement. This day was turning around quite fast, remarkably even. "Oh, God you are my savior! I love you!"

"See? Not even the first date yet and you're already confessing your love for me. I might as well be Jesus." Harry remarked, slyly. Bugger, he got me!

"Don't get your hopes up," I shot back, hoping this conversation would cool down.

"Oh, don't worry I will," he said, actually now that I think about it, more seriously. Was he just out to push my buttons half the time?

"All right, all right. Our 'date,'" I made air quotes, "isn't until tomorrow, remember. Now if you'd be so kind as to leave me alone for a little while, that'd be just splendid." I really did want to be alone at the moment. I felt like I needed a good cry to let out as the utter disappointment my mum will be in when she finds out what happened. She was too busy at work to come to my debate today. What a surprise.

"Wait! I have no way of contacting you!" He exclaimed, desperately.

"Here." I tossed him my business card I always handed out when I wanted to advertise myself for babysitting. He caught it perfectly and glanced at it. "Now, get out of here!"

He put on a pouty face that made me want to run into his arms like a fool and run my fingers through his perfect, side-swept hair. "But . . . wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?"

"Quoting Shakespeare, seriously?"

"Well, excuse me for finding an original and more literature way to say I want you. Unless your into just straightforward business, of course." God, he was so different from pretty much everyone else I knew. He was so out there, open and confident. Everything I was not.

I shook my head at this nonsense. "If I kiss you will you leave me be?"

He nodded like a person in need, vigorously. He was such a baby. But with all of that aside, I walked closer to him slowly, teasing him, and looked up at him. He was roughly four inches, give or take, taller than me. He bowed his head little and looked down at me. So, I reached up and put my hands on his shoulders and forced them down on him. He caught my drift and bent his knees so that he was at my level. Now we were the same height, my hands still on his shoulders as I leaned in to press my lips to his. We stayed like that as my hands drifted from his shoulders to my arms being wrapped around his neck. Getting totally lost and carried away in the kiss, I realized that after all I didn't want to be alone. I just wanted to stay with him there.

I suppose that Harry noticed that I wasn't pulling away like I usually do after at least a minute, so he deepened it. After a while, he was the one that pulled away and he took my hand and laced his fingers through mine. His touch sent electrical waves through my entire body.

"Do you really want me to leave now?" His voice barely above a whisper that if I wasn't so close I wouldn't be able to hear him. When I thought about it, his voice was really sexy like that.

I didn't say anything. Instead, I let go of his hand and laid back in the grass. It was damp, but I didn't care. Harry looked at me for a second then turned to walk away. I turned my head in his direction and grabbed his hand tightly and pulled him back. He turned around and fell on his bum. I laughed at his clumsiness.

In return, he gave pretty much the sweetest smile I've ever seen on him and we lay next to each other. I kind of felt like we were in that _Twilight_ movie. Except, a less creepy version at least. Just lying there with him next to me admiring me and this beautiful forest was what I've sworn the closest thing to perfection I've ever experienced.


	3. The Truth Comes Out

**I'll Be Your Reason To Be My Love **

_**Chapter Three:**_

_**The Truth Comes Out**_

_**February 15**__**th**__**, 2011**_

"You did what?!" My mother dropped the pot she was holding on the ground, quite dramatically. This caused a loud bang to occur in the kitchen which created a ringing in my ears. She overreacts too much. I had just told her about my debate team fiasco. And even though with her hectic work schedule, she hasn't been to a single event, she finds time to scold me about dropping out. Mr. Reynolds, my idiot of a teacher, called home to notify her. Otherwise, she would have never even known.

_Ugh._

"Mum, it's okay. I'll join some other extracurricular. I didn't like it much anyway," I tried reassuring her in the best possible way.

"Evie, you can't just pick up an activity in the middle of the school year!" She yelled at me, though I was only three feet away from her. I cringed. Jeez, when did she start to care so much anyway?

My mother desperately needed a date. She hasn't gone out in ages. I could hear the tension in her voice rising. If she had a man in her life, I'm sure she wouldn't be on me as much. Besides, I wanted to see her happy, having a good time for once in a while.

"Yes I can, I'm very persuasive, I promise everything will be okay."

She looks at me with tired deep blue eyes. Her dirty blonde hair is pulled back into a messy ponytail. I make a definite mental note to set her up on a date later. I walk from the kitchen to my room, slamming the door behind me. Ugh I have nothing left to live for. I need to find my mum a good date, a nice man.

I then smile to myself because I remember I have my own date tomorrow, and I've found my reason to live.

Harry has yet to call, but that's understandable considering I just got home round a half hour ago. I expected something from him soon though. So, with that, I decided to get start on this homework that's been plaguing me ever since I got it today.

I pick up the pencil next to my cellphone and decide to take my phone off of silent. Of course as soon as I do this my phone vibrates loudly a couple of times. I grasp for it and notice that it's only Annabel. I figure that I haven't spoken to her since "the incident" earlier so I pick up.

"Hi, Bel." I wait for the drama to begin.

"Where did you magically disappear to after that DISASTER?" she screams quite high pitched.

"I'm sorry I just . . . I needed to get out of there." I debate whether or not to tell her about Harry. Of course I'd have to do it when she was more calmed down, otherwise she'd probably have a heart attack. I decided to just keep quiet and let her rant and then I'll TRY explaining what happened even though I still don't quite understand it myself..

"Thank GOD I had another copy of my notes. How did you manage to take mine anyway? But anyway, what the hell happened to you? You never do that sort of thing. What's going on? Something weird, I know." Oh yeah, another thing you got to love about Annabel.

She will ask you ten questions all at once very quickly.

"I don't know what was going through my brain when I took your notes. And yes Bel, I'm very aware that this NEVER happens to me, but this time it did, didn't it? Not much I can do about it now since I quit." I just pretty much laid all the cards on the table there. She's kind of pissing me off since this really is the last thing I want to talk about right now.

"That was awfully foolish of you. Don't you know what that's going to do to your college application? We're in junior year Evie, shit matters this year! What have you done?" Thanks for being so realistic right now. Can't she tell I just simply need a friend who's going to tell me everything's going to be okay and not one who's basically telling me the only future job I have is 'thank you, enjoy the movie?'

At that moment I realize my eyes are welled with tears, blurring my vision. Ugh why was this happening, I hate crying so much. But lately that's I've been doing. I sniffled, my nose was getting runny from the crying.

"Jeez, Eve, are you crying? Woman up! It's just debate team," she blurted out, quite heartless.

And at that I hang up on her. I don't need this right now and especially not from her, my supposed best friend. Whatever, I'll just focus intently on this math homework.

Just as I pick up the pencil and write my name on the paper, I hear my mom yelling from downstairs. I can hear her distinctly say there's someone on the phone for me. Oh God. If it was Annabel calling back…which it probably was. She's usually the only one who calls my house phone. I consider telling my mom to say I'm in the bathroom or something but I realize I'll have to deal with her one way or another so I just reach over and pick up the cordless in my room.

"Hello?" I say in an annoyed tone. I can't take any more of Annabel's rubbish.

"Hello? It's Harry." My mood suddenly lightens a bit.

I squirm in my seat and perk up straight. I sniffle again to clear my nose so I don't sound like a retarded horse while talking. "Oh hi!" My voice turned from annoyed to excited in a second.

"Have you been crying?" he asks. God, he was a good guesser.

"Um, no." I lie. Not quite ready to share every detail of my life with him. Besides, this was a rather embarrassing topic and I'd like to avoid it for the rest of my life and forget this whole traumatic experience happened in the first place. I try to not sniffle again so he'll change the subject but I find myself doing it anyway. Ugh bugger!

"Really, what happened?" he asked in that perfect accent of his.

He actually sounded genuinely concerned so I decided to open up just a little bit. I sigh, "It's about what happened today. You know at my event. My friend called me and pretty much told me I'm a screw up at life but I guess YOLO." …Did I really say that? I try not to vom in my mouth of what I've just said. YOLO…you only live once. Totally overrated expression and pretty much everyone's excuse to getting drunk and high almost 85% of the time resulting in teen pregnancy. Yuck.

I hear him let out a slight laugh and then say in a low tone, "Don't cry, I know your pretty eyes don't deserve it."

I smile through the phone as I feel my cheeks get hot as I blush. I'm not like depressed or anything but I never really had good reception to compliments. I don't know they just made me always feel weird and make the situation a little uncomfortable you know? Well you probably don't since I'm most likely the only weirdo who thinks that…right. Anyways, I straightened up in my seat more and said, "Thanks but I'm sure I'll get over it soon and we'll be back to being best friends in no time." I smile to reassure him but then quit it as soon as I realize I'm on the phone and he can't see me. Duh.

"So wait. She'll make you cry and you'll continue being friends with her?" he asks in that low, perfect accent he has.

"She's my best friend of course I will," I say automatically without a thought. Of course Annabel and I are still best friends…I'm just pissed about the whole screw up today, right?

I hear him sigh slightly and can tell he shifts the phone to his other ear through the static. "I'll never understand that."

"Yeah, well. Welcome to girl world!" I exclaim. I pick up my pencil and have a look at my math homework. I glance over it and see if there are any problems I know off of the top of my head. After a second, I let out a heavy, exasperated sigh. I might as well be reading Chinese. I stop shaking the pencil in my hand and bite the tip of the eraser. Horrible habit I have.

Harry exaggerates a shiver through the phone, "Girl world is scary."

I giggle once I hear this, "It is . . . so anyway, why are you calling my home phone?" I ask. Did he not have my mobile number? God we were doing everything backwards and being the perfectionist I am, it was beginning to irk me. But at the same time, I can't say I wasn't enjoying every bit of it.

"This number was on the card," he said calmly. A little too calmly in fact. At that moment, I envied his relaxedness. I was so stressed lately and it was really beginning to be quite the little bugger.

"Oh right! Sorry, I'm sure you must want my mobile number . . ." I trailed off chuckling at my own blank stupidity.

Over the phone, I hear a loud slammed door and the pitter patter of rapid rain. I furrow my eyebrows in confusion as Harry says, "Why don't you come outside and give it to me?"

"What?" I get up and walk to my window and survey the grass on my front yard. And, there he is as expected. I shake my head. This was just unbelievable and all felt so unreal. Lately, I swear my life has been some giant, surreal film that has definitely had its ups and downs. I scrunch up my face in disbelief at him. "No!"

"Oh come on!" he whined, "I come all this way . . . and you're gonna turn me down." I watch him as he lifts his free arm in the air gesturing to me 'really' and I spitefully smile.

"Sorry," I tease, "but unlike some people, some of us actually have work to do." I lift my math homework to the window for him to see.

"Oh please, like you were actually going to do it anyway?" How did he possibly know that…

"Yeah I was actually," I lie. What he doesn't know won't hurt him!

I watch as I see him give a cheeky smile to the grass and then looks up, "All right. I'm coming in and helping you with it."

I actually liked the sound of that idea for a moment. But then I remembered my mom would have a freak out fit and my eyes widen in horror. "No! I'm coming out, just . . ." I struggle to find words, "stay there!" I exclaim like a fidgety mess and press "END" on the phone. I reach for my cell phone and shove it in my skirt pocket and I grab my jacket off of my chair, my blue denim one that ties at the waist, throw it over my shoulders and messily knot it. I lift my long hair out from under it and let it fall into a wavy mess. I look at myself in the mirror and don't quite like what I see, but shrug it off and slam my door open and closed as I clumsily fly down the staircase.

As I run through the kitchen to get to the foyer, my mother stops me dead in my tracks. "Whoa, where are you running off to so quick?" She asks in her 'sweetheart' voice, thinking that will make me more willing to answer her. But honestly, it actually quite irritates me.

"Just to the library to pick up some books," I'm surprised with how quickly I came up with a lie. And a good one too.

"Well, hold on I'll drive you, I'm going to the supermarket to get some food and then Laurie wants to meet me for dinner." She turns around and reaches for her car keys. Bollocks.

This was not going to work out. Mother would walk right out the front door and see Harry standing there like an idiot. I have to get him out of here. So I do my best to try and stall by saying, "Wait!" I grasp her arm, motioning for her to drop the keys. "Can you make me a sandwich first, I'm kind of hungry."

"And what's wrong with you?" I need to get a boy the hell out of here, that's what's wrong with me.

"Please I miss the way you used to do it so perfectly and plus my wrists are sore from doing pull ups at the gym with Annabel," I whine as she sighs, giving in. Yes. Good.

"All right, fine. But could you at least take out the trash please?" She hands me a giant black bag filled to the top, heavy. But this was actually a perfect way to get rid of Harry. I smiled at the rate things were going at.

"Yes," I say as I turn around and walk out the door. I slam it shut and look in real quick to make sure she's not watching me and turn to the left to the garbage cans. I throw in the bag super quick and then change my direction and start running towards Harry who is smiling like the Cheshire cat.

"Hey!" he exclaims once I'm closer to him. He grabs me by my sides and pulls me closer, and I try to fight him but he's way too strong for me. He leans in for a kiss but I place one hand on his torso and pull back, while I place my other hand on his lips, quieting him.

"Shh. Don't say _anything _and follow me." I turn around so quickly that my long hair actually whips him in the face and he spits and makes a funny face at me. I giggle quietly and mouth, "sorry" and he just gives me a crooked smile. I grasp his hand tightly and pull him to the backyard. Once we get there, I realize then that the rain had stopped and I managed to step out of my house without getting wet at all while Harry was completely soaked.

He shook his shaggy hair like a dog and actually managed to get a few drops on me. He laughs huskily and says, "Sorry!" Was he mocking me from before? Ugh I'm going to get him.

"Just stay here okay, I'll be back."

I run to the gate to open it when I hear Harry call from behind me in a playful tone, "So mysterious!"

"Yes I am." I turn around to face him for a second, and then stumble out of my backyard and enter through the front door again, making sure my mum didn't suspect anything suspicious. Thankfully, she didn't and my sandwich was actually done. Huh, bingo! "Ah, thanks mum!" I say and reach for the sandwich taking a huge bite. I didn't realize that I was actually starving from before.

"All right, Evie I'll take you to the library when you're finished, okay?"

"Mm, no mum, just go I actually think I'll get more work done here," I say my mouth filled with food. What a huge lie, but whatever.

"Are you sure?" What was I, five? She didn't need to keep asking me stupid little questions like these.

"Yes, mum go have fun with Laurie, please you deserve it." I smile as I lift up the sandwich, a reminder of her hard work of the day. Not that I'm complaining, this was actually the best ham sandwich I've had in a while.

"Okay, I'll be home at 7, see you later, then, call me if you need anything!" She stresses, again.

"Yes mum, okay I will." God could she leave yet? The universe must have set this up, the day that she's going to annoy me about every little thing is the day when I actually have something amusing to do with my life waiting right outside.

Finally, she gives me a half-wave as she walks out the door and locks it behind her. I wait until I hear the car take off out of the driveway until I'm running out my backdoor. I quickly fumble my way around the stairs of my deck and run up to Harry and jump into his arms, letting him take a step back at my weight as he catches me. My legs wrap around his back and my arms lock around his neck as I go to kiss him hungrily. Wow, didn't realize I was in this much need earlier. Ah, hormones.

"Uh, wow miss me?" he says once he pulls away from me. He has that crooked smile on his perfect face again.

"Mm, yes definitely since the past what, hour since I've seen you?" I say a little sarcastically, but then again in the same way totally serious. He was kind of like a drug to me now and I've only known him for not even a good 48 hours. Great.

He laughs. "Well good, cuz I've missed you too."

"You know, our 'date' isn't until tomorrow right?" I remember that myself just now, as well. Hell, whatever we had now was definitely unlike any other 'relationship' if you could even call it that.

He groans, "Can't it be todayyyyy?"

He was such a whiney four year old child. But I did kind of like it, I admit. I jump down from his back and set myself on the ground. What the—? Was I wearing heels? Don't remember putting these on, but all right . . . No wonder the world felt wobbly now. "Just come inside and we can talk or whatever, okay?"

He smiled at my 'whatever,' (that dirty mind of his) as he agrees with me and I lead him inside my backdoor. I then pull him up my stairs and we enter my room and I slam the door shut. Oh good thing I still have those gigantic posters of a shirtless Taylor Lautner hung up at every wall of my room. I see Harry looking all around my room and I blush at this. God he must find this amusing. He looks up at one and then looks at me as he points to Taylor Lautner's eight pack. "I have one of those."

I laugh loudly and obnoxiously and tease, "Oh really?"

He nods his head up and down, again resembling a child and gives me a childish grin. I walk towards him and say, "Let's see." I take my hand and begin to ride it up his shirt but he stops me.

"Nu-uh. It's not perfect yet." He takes my hand away from his chest and brings it up to his lips as he kisses my fingers slowly which gives me a tingling sensation in the pit of my stomach.

"Oh come on. You're in a teenage girl's room. Isn't that considered 'the jackpot' for some of you sex-crazed adolescent boys?" I raise an eyebrow skeptically.

He stopped kissing my fingers and took my hand away from his mouth, but still held it as he exclaimed, "I am not sex-crazed!"

"Uh, you're a seventeen year old boy, if you're not sex-crazed, you're not normal," I state, quite factually. It is rather crazy what extremes boys go to just to have a girl in their pants, it's really disturbing and disgusting most times, well to me anyway. Can't say the same for some of the sluts at my school, but I won't go naming names . . .

"Hmph." He furrows his eyebrows in confusion at me and looks from me down to my hand and then back up at me. He's still holding it but when he sees my face that is somewhat in between trying to not giggle uncontrollably and deep in thought, he lets it go.

I whine like a baby at this and make a puppy dog face at him. "Heyy, this hand needs some lovin' too." I raise my left hand at him.

At this, he raises both his eyebrows so high that they're hidden under his wild, now damp hair. "Oh, so, you like it," he states as he lifts it up to his lips to resume his process.

I wasn't sure if it was a question or not, but honestly he'll never know how much that I actually did.

** Excuse the overuse of sex in this chapter, but I did have Lady Gaga songs on replay whilst writing this so yeah that's my excuse.**

**Okay well I hope you enjoyed and next chapter definitely will be better! And I am so sorry for the lack of update in eight days ah absolutely UNFORGIVEABLE! But when I saw all the reviews my heart stopped and to all my silent readers, I saw all the hits and went to my room and cried so I locked myself in there and wrote this up for ya'll and I'm sorry if it sucks! But tell me if you liked it or not anyway in a review and read thank you thank you thank you! Next chapter update is SOON I promise! Big ideas in store for this :)**


	4. Perfection in a Tree

I'll Be Your Reason To Be My Love

_**Chapter Four:**_

_**Perfection in a Tree**_

_**February 15th, 2011**_

"You are so perverted!" It was six o'clock on a Monday night and Harry and I haven't left my room ever since I invited him inside.

"No, but see I was referring to 'pussy' as the cats. So unless you have your mind somewhere else . . . " he defended sheepishly. He was holding my pink pig pillow pet and squishing it for comfort. It was quite the adorable scene, I might say.

"Harry, you and I both know what you meant by pussy," I say, rather serious as I raise my eyebrows at him.

"Maybe a little bit . . ." A smile sparks across his lips in a tantalizing manner and his eyes widen.

"And to think that I thought you were different from all those sex-crazed, horny teenage boys." I move my index fingers across one another to gesture 'shame, shame' at him. I duck my head down and make a scolding face.

I look over at my clock and see that it's 6:07. It's beginning to get dark out now and I still haven't gotten my coffee from Starbucks that I've been craving since I woke up this morning. I yawn. I've been in this room for too long, I need to get out of here…now.

I see that he's making a puppy dog face at me from my last comment. I shake it off and change the subject, "Can we get out of here and go to like, Starbucks?" I ask, walking over to drag him off of my floor. I grasp his hand and attempt to pull him up. I groan. Yeah, that's not going to happen.

"No!" he exclaims, rather suddenly. He put his free hand on top of mine, which is grasping his other hand quite tightly.

"What? Why not?"

"Ehm, I just want to stay here with you," he said a little confused, kind of. I don't know why he was acting a little strange every single time I mention going out somewhere. Like, before I asked if he wanted to actually come to library with me so I wouldn't get that busted when my mom came home, but he made up some silly excuse that didn't even make sense. Well, that was awkward. Now what? Were we just going to stay in here forever? Bloody hell, when he said we would go on a date tomorrow he didn't mean just like, at someone's house did he. . . ?

"Oh come on. We've been in here for hours and Evie needs her caffeine. Now." I widen my eyes at him and make a scary face. I'm usually dead without my coffee in the morning and I don't know why I didn't cave in to my cravings sooner. "Seriously, a bomb might go off if I don't have my coffee." I got closer to his face, hoping this would make him feel a little uncomfortable and give in to my needs. Otherwise, I was going to have to kick him out and just go alone and oh, how I super do not want that to happen.

"All right. I'll make you some coffee then," he said as he stared into my eyes for a second and then stood up whilst giving me a determined look on his face as he made way for my bedroom door.

I run up to the door and block it so that he can't get through. I look up at him, God he was tall, and force, "We are going to Starbucks or I'm going alone and you'll see me tomorrow."

He scrunched up his face at me like 'ugh' and closed his eyes as he took his thumb and index finger as he rubbed in between his eyebrows like I was giving him a migraine. Which, due to my total annoyingness, I probably was. He sighed heavily, like he was about to do something that he dreaded, "Evie, can you sit down for like a second I need to get this out."

"What?" I say, completely dumbfounded by his words. I've known the guy for like a day. _What secrets could he possibly be keeping_? And as soon as I think that, I realize I still know absolutely nothing about him so he could possibly be some mass murderer or something, waiting for his next victim.

But that was a little bit of crazy talk…I hope. When he wasn't responding I pressed on, "What are you talking about?" I realized that I had sounded a bit defensive but, could you blame me?

"Ehm . . . " He needed to just spit out whatever he was going to reveal. I watched him as he ran his fingers up through his curls as he released them after a minute adding to its floppy volume. He looked all around my room as if that would give him an answer to whatever he was yearning for and then finally broke the silence between us. "Well, you'll see when we get to Starbucks. Let's go."

He looked at me as he waited for me to stop blocking the door to get out. He studied my face and I studied his in return. I realized that he was only staring at me like this to silently tell me to move and I quickly got on and jumped to the side. I blushed furiously and turned the doorknob. I fumbled out of my room and he followed behind me. We walked down the stairs in silence but right before I went to open the front door, Harry took me by the arm and spun me around to face him.

He half laughed, "This is a bit embarrassing but, can you drive?"

"Yes, I'm seventeen, aren't you?"

"Yes but I only turned seventeen two weeks ago, so I've only still got my permit."

Oh great I was a cougar now. Not by much though, only nine months but still…awkward.

"Well, don't worry. Starbucks is only a block from here so we can walk it." I smile kindly, trying to avert the awkwardness he created between us. I wish I had my iPod or maybe one of those Chinese finger trapper things, or really _anything_to occupy my hands, as they were just flailing all over the place strangely since I had nothing to do with them. It's then that I realize as I was thinking this I was staring directly at his face, not moving. Terrific.

Trying to conjure up the last bits of collectedness I possibly may still have, I turn back around and unlock the door and hold it open for him. As he passes by me, I slam the door shut and smile that the rain has finally truly let up. Though it was semi-dark out, it was nice to just feel the cool air on my skin and nothing more. When I looked up, I could make out Harry's facial expression which looked a bit pained and nervous. I wanted to ask what was wrong but I felt like kind of an annoyance. We walked in silence for about a few minutes until I broke the cold air stillness with my burning curiosity, "Um, are you okay?"

He looked up at me from where he was boring his gaze into the sidewalk, when it looked like he was lost deep in thought. I feel a bit bad as I inch a little closer to him, trying to tell him through my demented body language that whatever it is, he can tell me.

Even if we have only known each other for oh, a day and a half.

As he glanced at my genuinely concerned expression, he cracked a half-smile, and I'm not sure if he meant it or he was just trying to make me feel better. Instead of answering my question, he just reached his arm over and pressed his firm hand gently upon my back, nudging me a little closer to him. He put his arm around, over to my right shoulder as he we walked close to each other. "Now I am," he said a little quietly. He jammed his free hand into his pocket as we finally approached Starbucks.

I reached out with my arm that Harry had his grip on and pulled open the door. He released my shoulder to hold the door open for himself as we went to the front of the counter. There were only three other girls in the corner table. As we waited for someone to get to us, I bumped my shoulder into his arm, signaling for him to cuddle me like that again. To my surprise, he didn't get my hint and I was left standing there like an idiot.

_Burn?_

Finally, a tiny woman came to the counter, I got my mocha Frappuccino and Harry got a Carmel one. As we sipped our drinks in silence, we both heard those three girls shouting about something ridiculous. As it was just us in there, Harry's face started to gain a relieved look which made me feel a little better from that paleness I noticed before.

"And then Hailey was all 'VAS HAPPENIN'' like Zayn in that one video and it was a _crack-up._ She sounded _just_like him, it was actually quite creepy!" one of the girls exclaimed. I couldn't help but chuckle at how stupid they sounded, even though I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.

Harry's eyes shifted from those three girls back to me and his eyes widened as he sipped his frap. He separated from the coffee to say, "Come on, let's get out of here."

"We just got here two minutes ago!" I protested. Was he an indoors person? Because honestly, I felt like he has a problem with showing his face in public which is a bit odd, but I guess everyone's different . . .

"I know but . . . " he trailed off, his face losing colour again as it had previously. Now I'm starting to feel a bit bad for dragging him all the way out here . . . what? Shut up, Evie it was three fudging blocks. Everyone needs exercise, gosh. I heard him swallow hard as he used his coat collars to shield the sides of his face a bit. I could still notice the blank whiteness on it now, though which was starting to worry me. God, I wish he would just tell me why he's being so weird all of a sudden . . .

_Maybe he was shy._

Oh, Christ, like hell he's shy. Just think back to yesterday when we first met, yeah, definitely not shy.

Unless he's one of those guys who at first come on all confident- like but then turn into some kind of uncharacteristic timid boy.

I should probably stop psychoanalyzing this. Now.

"Okay, okay, we'll leave." I don't want to start some type of wild argument with him, especially since we've known each other less than forty-eight hours and we were in Starbucks, for crying out loud. Plus, from what I've heard today, Harry can have an extremely loud voice sometimes and it's really low and husky which probably makes his yelling seem frightening. I wasn't quite ready to uncover that part of him yet.

I pushed out of my chair and picked up my drink as I watched Harry quickly exit the joint like someone had a bomb. I was left standing there like an idiot yet again. The three girls in the corner heard his vast, loud movements and all looked at me like I was taming a lion. They had the most disgusting looks on their faces and I kind of wanted to throw my coffee at them but of course I didn't. I just smiled and waved innocently, then rushed out of there possibly faster than he did. When I was exposed to the cold evening air, I looked all around but couldn't find him. Did he just leave me here? What a stupid, lame, deranged, jer—

"Boo!" Oh.

Harry greeted me from the top of the tree that was just outside of the coffee place. It was quite tall, and has been there for literally forever. Harry perched himself on a sturdy branch and had his coffee in between his legs. I squinted to try and make out what exactly he was doing in that tree as I yelled up to him, "How did you get up there so fast?"

"I got skills in tree climbing, babe!" he yelled back down at me. God he was so high up.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. Now that I think about it, he kind of reminded me of a six year old child who loved adventure and action, but when they finally pursued it they chickened out at the last minute. I was just waiting for him to scream back at me that he couldn't get down and to call the fire department quickly. I laughed at my own thought absentmindedly as I replied, "I'm sure you do. Now are you going to get down from there?"

"OF COURSE NOT!" he hollered down at me, I think a little louder than he intended. I shook my head at him disapprovingly. I wondered if he could see me from all the way down here. Before I could say anything to his sudden outburst he added, "You're gonna come up here!"

I laughed at his complete and total imagination. "Uh, I don't think so!" It was then that I realized I don't even know his last name. Wow, this just turned weird. It made me feel so strange to think that I've only known this boy for such a short time, yet I felt so comfortable with him. I mean, I was never really shy per say, but there were some things I just didn't admit to people. But with him, I kind of felt obligated to just say whatever was on my mind, which felt nice to have a person to say that about.

"Come and get up here, you know you want to!" he exclaimed. It amazed me as to how he could go from looking so insecure to shouting things from the top of his lungs from the top of a public tree.

I actually considered it for a minute, but then totally decided against it as I remember what happened when I was a little younger. I admit, I loved to tree climb, pretty much every day, whether if it was raining outside or not. It felt so liberating and exhilarating. I used to climb every one of my friends trees in their backyards or front yards. But one day in the summer, Annabel and I walked out to this wooded area in the middle of well, nowhere in particular. We both decided to climb up as high as we could, this one tree that was placed right in front of the opening to the forested place. When we were possibly as high up as we could be, some middle aged menopausal woman emerged from this tiny house that we didn't even notice, and yelled at us for climbing her tree for what seemed like an eternity. We were so high up that we couldn't make out a word she was saying so we yelled for her to wait as we climbed down. But since it was a really tall tree, it took us a while to get down. It's definitely not as easy as getting up. It must have took us ten minutes but to our surprise, by the time we got down the cops were there and wanted to take us to the station for 'vandalizing' and 'trespassing.' I thought it was absolutely absurd since we didn't know this was occupied property and should have at least gotten off unnoticed with a warning, but of course not. It turned into this whole big thing with both of our parents and we thought we'd never see or hear the end of it. It was so bad that I haven't climbed a tree since.

And that concludes my traumatic experience.

Which is why, I shook my head numerous times to Harry as I turned to leave him in the dust, seeing as how he wasn't coming down any time soon. The cold night breeze wafted through my hair, causing some of my curls to unwind to go back to its dull, flattening straightness. I heard Harry holler out my name a few times but I was kind of done for the night. That is until I heard that one word that he shouted to the heavens.

"YOU PUSSY!"

I stopped dead in my tracks. _What did he just call me?_ Yeah, okay now it was definitely on. I turned around, my hair smacking my face, and I squinted to make out Harry grinning like an idiot in the tree. I changed my facial expression from confused to _you are so dead to me,_as I sprinted as fast as I could back to the Starbucks. I finished off the last of my drink as I tossed the empty can to the side of the bushes, not caring if I was harming the planet. I was actually considering picking it back up and heading to the nearest garbage can but decided to screw it. Who cares anymore, really. As soon as I approached the tree, a rush of adrenaline washed over me and I climbed that thing as high as I could. As I hoisted myself up on each upcoming branch I felt a wave of excitement flood through my body and before I knew it, I was higher up than Harry was.

_Oops._

I stopped myself, as I realized I was going way too high than normal so I stopped abruptly and looked down. I saw Harry was looking up at me with the strangest look on his face, kind of like I was a crazy woman so I adjusted myself properly to prepare to climb down a few couple branches to get more level with him.

"Don't get too carried away there, love," Harry tried as I plopped myself next to him on the branch that he was patting his hand on, invitingly.

I rolled my eyes at him sarcastically. I readjusted myself on the branch to get more comfortable, making sure that I don't fall off. I struggled for a second to let my feet hang down but I found myself losing balance a bit and reached to my left to grasp onto the fat trunk of the tree. Harry noticed me failing and placed a protective arm around my waist, ensuring I won't fall, break my neck and die. His hand grasped at my side gently, holding me up to position myself. Once we were both settled, he still didn't release me. I turned my head to the right to look up at him, silently telling him that I was fine, but then I realized he didn't _want_to let go. This made me feel like a rush of ecstasy was making its way through my whole body. I hadn't felt this way with a boy for a long time and even though Derek and I just broke up yesterday, I realize now that I wasn't really happy with him. I always assumed that it was because we've been together forever like one of those old married couples and this was the way it was supposed to feel like, but I don't know. With Harry I've only known him for a day so I obviously can't tell but I try to think back when I first started talking to Derek. Did it feel like this?

I don't know.

But what I did know was that Harry's arm around me couldn't feel more right at the moment, which I was trying so hard to make the best of. For a second, I forgot where I was at what I was doing, it was like we were in a perfect world. I wasn't thinking about anything, I wasn't worrying and it was like we just were. Nothing more.

It was then that I remembered Harry and I were supposed to have a 'date but it's totally not a date' tomorrow. We were doing things so backwards it wasn't even real anymore. But right now I didn't mind at all. It was actually kind of spontaneous, which was nice for a change. I liked it.

I rested my head on Harry's broad shoulder. It was pretty comfy, if I do say so myself. I felt his head gently press upon my own and we just sat there in silence for a little while. "Are we still on for tomorrow?" I whisper, not wanting to break this perfection.

I felt his voice vibrate on his neck as he said, "What do you think?"

I couldn't help but smile.


	5. Of Harry Styles and ExBoyfriends

**I'll Be Your Reason to be My Love**

_**Chapter Five:**_

_**Of Harry Styles and Ex-Boyfriends**_

_**February 16**__**th**__**, 2011**_

I had the most amazing night with Harry yesterday. After cuddling in the tree for about fifteen more minutes, we decided to climb back down and he walked me to my house. Thankfully, by the time we got there, my mother _still _wasn't home which was a blessing but yet still so curious. She couldn't have been just food shopping for that amount of time. No one does, and trust me I know. Those stores are always so freezing and it's winter time. So I definitely have to interrogate my mum about that.

But first, I have to drag myself out from under the covers and face another long, boring, possibly humiliating day at school. Ugh, thank God they're having some weird teacher conference thing going on so no school for students. Those are the type of days I live for.

After I decided to get my lazy bum out of bed, throw on some old ripped jeans, a ratty t-shirt and my vans, I went to go grab my mobile to shove into my back pocket. When I tap the top right button, I notice that I had gotten a text from an unknown number. I stand by my dresser, still as I slide it open and read:

_**Hey, love it's Harry…just wanted to let you know I'm taking you to Nando's at six tonite :) **_

I laughed at how he used such proper grammar and spelling but then when it came to the last word he decided to use text talk. I ran my fingers through my long straight hair smoothly and stood there smiling. It dawned on me suddenly then, that we had a 'date but so not a date' later today. I felt a wave of excitement pulse through my body as I sighed contentedly. Now that I had motivation for today, I was feeling a little more willing to not come off as a total rhymes with witch like usual in the mornings. I noticed that he sent that text at 5:50 A.M. Wow, he got up super early. Wonder why, that's strange . . . Nonetheless, I got a good feeling in my stomach. No school tomorrow, date tonight, life was going pretty terrific at the moment. It took me a second before I texted him back:

_**So romantic ;)**_

I smiled to myself and checked my hair once more in the mirror. I brushed through it a couple of times and noticed it had a bit of volume today. That was unusual since usually it was completely dull and flat all the time, which I hated. I fixed my long side bangs, placed on the right side of my face, and studied myself. I debated whether or not to give them a little trim. Ah, maybe later. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket again; it didn't take him long before he replied:

_**You know it babe!xx**_

Well, he obviously liked using terms of endearment quite a lot. Can't say I didn't enjoy them, though. I let out a small chuckle as I quickly typed:

_**I do, I do. So I kind of have to get to school, so shall I see you later?**_

Instantly he said:

_**Of course :) have a good day Eviexx**_

At this point, it may be an understatement to say that he is slowly killing me with his cuteness every second. I sighed contentedly. I forgot what it felt like to have that one smile only a boy could put on your face. Derek hadn't done that in a while, now that I realize.

At that second, my mother called me downstairs for breakfast. As I walked down the stairs and made my way into the kitchen, I smiled a little as I typed back:

_**:)You too, Harry **_

My mother gave me a conscientious look, like she was trying to figure something out. Oh God, if I know that look she's going to ask me—

"Who are you texting?"

Yup. Now it begins. The questioning. If I say who it is, she'll instantly ask me where I met him, if I'm dating him and all this business I really don't have time for at the moment. And if I don't say who it is, she'll ask me why am I keeping secrets from her, this is serious and how I shouldn't do this because it will only lead to worse things down the road of the web of lies. But honestly, my mother hasn't been around too much lately. She's been sneaking out I know. Like last night, she didn't get home until midnight, yeah. And last week same deal. What was going on? And I know it wasn't work, since she turns left out the driveway to get to work but lately she's been turning right. She definitely has a skeleton in the closet that's just dying to come out. And if it's not, trust me, it will sooner or later so I don't really think she's so innocent either.

"Annabel," I lie. That seemed like a safe way out though it is nowhere near the truth. Annabel has been so distant and annoying, currently and I don't want to deal with her at school today either. Blegh.

She nods like she doesn't really believe it, but actually doesn't care enough to press on. Perfectly fine with me.

"Why did you come home so late, last night?" I need to see if she's going to tell me the truth or not. And if she doesn't we definitely have something going on then.

"I was out with a colleague. Work purposes, same old," she replied haughtily. Well. Sounded like something definitely fishy was going on here. But I didn't have time to over analyze the situation at the moment. I will have to investigate into this further, later though. Now I had to get my arse off to school and finally face Annabel and ask what is up with her since she's been acting strange recently, also.

Everyone's been acting weird lately.

I didn't have too much time to ponder my new discovery, as I was out the door, sprinting to school. It's only a few blocks from my house so I decide to walk it. I slammed the door shut, making sure I made a noise specifically to jolt my mum since she was getting on my nerves. I hope she knows that I'm not taking her lame answer as the end of the conversation.

I have successfully avoided Annabel for as long as I could, until fifth period started. She was of course in my math class, along with our other friend Jake. Jake was the type of guy you could joke around with but still manage to have a serious, deep conversation with at the same time. He was great and we've been friends ever since sixth grade.

Actually, at the moment I have a bone to pick with Jake. He was the one who set me up with Derek in the first place. And granted, that lasted for a good year and half I still couldn't get out of my head how it brutally came to an end just two days ago. Jake wasn't in school yesterday, so this is going to be the first of he's hearing of this, along with my blow up in debate team yesterday. He was so clueless, poor kid. But it really didn't help that he went on holiday to the freaking Bahamas on the other side of the world in the middle of the school year. But whatever.

Right at that moment, I realize that Derek is actually in this class. He was absent yesterday too…jeez it was like don't come to school day yesterday. Then it dawned on me that his assigned seat is directly in front of me. He would always turn around and try and distract me, cutely, from my work. I could only remember gazing into those chocolate eyes and melting, horribly.

Wait, why am I thinking about this again? I have a date tonight, I should be over this…even if it only has been two days.

But Derek was still so beautiful in my eyes. I had to stop thinking about this now though. I felt like I was on the verge of tears, and it's then that I realize I haven't even had a good cry about the whole thing. Well, I was beginning to become heartless. That's terrific, just what I need. I watched the door as I saw Annabel enter, flipping her long, blonde, straight hair. She ran her fingers through it as she made eye contact with me. I kept a close eye on her as I saw her run up to me, all excited.

"EVIE!" She shouted, straight in my face.

"Standing right here, Bell, not quite deaf yet," I joked with her. I don't want to start an argument of any sort about the previous night so I'm just going to go along with whatever she's telling me. She seemed super hyper, which was bad since she was already hyper as it was but today it looks like she had about five coffees in a row. Jesus, this ought to be a good show.

"Oh, oh, oh, MY GOD." Oh Lord, I know these rants. She's going to exclaim excitedly, have at least ten spasms, and freak for about five minutes before she actually tells me what's up. I sink back in my seat and advert my eyes to Derek and then back at her, seeing if she's going to take the hint. She catches on a little, but is too welled in her own excitement to say or do anything about it other than freak out on me. Whatever. I always have Jake.

Who is unaware of our breakup. And is walking over to us as we speak. Oh, God is right.

"Hey, hey, hey, lovebirds! How was the Valentine's day?" It is then that I resist my urge to walk over to Mr. Smith's desk, snatch that duct tape, and plant it right over his mouth. This is going to be a really awkward forty minutes. I notice Derek look back at me, a blank expression on his face and then turn to Jake.

"Oh, uh, Evie didn't tell you, man?" Derek Harper, you are like the chewed up piece of gum underneath my desk that I accidentally placed my hand on. I seriously want to smack him across his face.

"Tell me what?" Jake said, all hyped up, expecting some big news like we got engaged or something. As if. He was so oblivious as to what was coming.

I saw Derek look back at me like, 'are you going to tell him' but please. If he's going to act like I don't have a say in this, I'm just going to keep quiet. Like I want to talk about this at the moment anyways. I turned my head to the right to look over at Annabel who was still standing beside my desk. She was still phased by whatever big news she had in store for me. God, she was frozen in place she didn't even realize the conversation that was taking place right in front of her. She was such a blonde sometimes.

"Evie and I aren't together anymore," he said, quite politely, although him and Jake have been fairly close friends for a while now. Jeez, it was like he was talking to some teacher who just asked him for homework that he didn't do, so he was trying to get by, by enlightening them with his charm. Yeah right. He flashed Jake an awkward smile, as Jake's own smile faded into the air like dust. He stood there completely frozen, and now Annabel and Jake could be mistaken as twins by their identical mind blown look.

This day had just gotten ten times worse than I had expected it would have turned out to be.

Lord help us all.

After that little blow up, Mr. Smith was going on and on about graphing quadratic functions and everyone was in their own little world. Annabel was still blown out of proportion with her 'news' that she still never stopped freaking over to tell me. Jake still had that 'what in bloody Hell just happened while I was gone' look slapped across his face. Derek was sitting in front of me, perfectly fine, unbothered by the whole issue. And the only thing that was on my mind was my date with Harry tonight. I had been so hung up on Derek all day today that I forgot that texting encounter Harry and I had. When Mr. Smith was getting too boring, or I was too depressed with my situation at the moment, I would look down in my bag and scroll through our conversation over and over. I considered texting him again but I felt a little strange about it. What if he didn't want to talk to me? Or what if he was busy with his own school? Where did he go to school anyway? Where was he from?

Well I guess I'll find all that out later tonight. I couldn't wait. But I also couldn't help feeling like I was being a little bipolar today. The day had gone from good, to bad, to worse, to, well I don't even really know what anymore. I sighed heavily. It was only fifth period, and this day couldn't possibly drag on any more than it already has been.

Oh, but it could.

At that instant, the bell rang and Annabel popped up right in front of my face. I was drew aback a bit, since I didn't even see her appear in front of me in the first place, but that was the thing about her. She was so bouncy and fast you didn't see it coming. "Are you going to tell me what the big news is now?"

She looked to her side, inevitably and then to the other side, making sure the room was cleared of anybody. It was just Mr. Smith walking around awkwardly behind his desk, preparing for next classes' lessons. I glanced back at him to see if thought this was going to be a bit odd, since he would be pretending not to hear what we were saying, but would anyway and he shot me back an irritated look. Well, so much for subtlety.

"Um, are you sure you don't want to tell me in the cafeteria?" I tried, seeing as how we obviously were not welcome in here.

"Nooooo," she dragged on the word, like my suggestion was the worst thing in the world, "no one else can know."

Oh, jeez. She's about to spill some gigantic secret right in front of our math teacher, as if he didn't think we weren't weird enough. I watched Annabel as she gestured her fingers up to her mouth as she mimed a 'zip the lip' movement and threw away the 'key.' I nodded in response.

"I . . . oh my God, I can't even say it!" she was completely filled on excitement and coffee, not a good mix. "I, your very bestest, amazingest, awesomest friend in the ENTIRE world, got us tickets to see ONE DIRECTION!"

Ignoring the fact that pretty much all the adjectives she used to describe herself, were in fact, not real words, I urged myself not to completely go mental. She kept me waiting for _that? _I gave her a very sarcastic remark, "Yeah, that _would _be completely amazing!" I gave her my best fake smile and laugh, "If, you know, I knew who the hell you were talking about."

I watched in satisfaction as her face went from utterly ecstatic to completely baffled in a matter of seconds. Her face dropped entirely, and she grabbed me by my arm as she dragged me out of the barren classroom. "See you tomorrow, Mr. Smith," she said, in a total neutral, crushed voice.

As soon as we were in the hallway, Annabel broke out into a full-on yelling voice, as if the idle chatter of the corridors weren't enough. "Zayn Malik? Liam Payne? Niall Horan? Are any of these beautiful people even ringing the slightest of bells?"

"Uh, no?" I replied, coldly. I was not responding well to this interrogation. I deeply tried not to appear as completely zoned out as I was to her, but that was so hard to do. I felt as if I were staring into a blank surface, my head so totally in space that I don't even realize what I'm staring at.

"What about Louis Tomlinson? Hmm? OH! .GOD. you can _not _forget about Harry Styles. A personal favourite of mine, if I do say so myself . . . but who am I kidding they're all spectacular!"

Wait what was this nonsense she was feeding me? Didn't she realize I had no idea who she was talking about? I was so not in the mood to discuss this, since I know for the rest of the day she's going to be nagging me about it. "Mm, that's great Bells but can we get to lunch now?"

"Yeah!" she exclaimed, hooking my arm in hers. "Okay so, since you _will _be going with me to this fabulouis—SEE WHAT I DID THERE—concert, I should inform you on _everything._" She tried her best to keep quiet so that no one would hear, but failed miserably. I laughed a bit at her attempt, actually. It wasn't long before she continued, "So, what do you say you come over after school and I'll give you the ultimate 411?"

_Thank God I have plans afterschool_, I think to myself. I don't believe I could make it through another three hours of school, let alone now with Annabel's persistent attitude. "I can't, Bell, I'm sorry," I said, not really sorry at all. But of course, she didn't need to know that . . .

"What?! You never have plans after school, Eve! What are you doing?"

I looked into her blue eyes and realized that I couldn't lie to her. Even though she was being extremely irritable lately, in the end she was still my best friend. And I trusted her with my life, so I figured it's about time to tell her to whom I've been devoting all my attention to, lately.

"I have a date," I tried, slowly.

"I'm sorry what, it sounded like you said you had a date . . . ?"

"I do. Tonight." I smiled briefly at the floor, thinking about Harry in the back of my mind. Annabel caught my eye with a knowing look on her face. She stared at me until I looked back up at her and met her eyes. They widened as I exclaimed, "What?"

"You _reaaaally _like this guy, huh?" She rose a curious eyebrow and flashed me a tiny smile. When my only response was smiling like a foolish idiot she continued, "Okay, what is this boy's name?"

"His name's Harry," I said, the sound of his name just brightening my day ten times more.

"HARRY STYLES?" She yelled in my face. _Jeez, calm down already. _I wanted to say. But of course I didn't…

"Totally, Bells. Like, how did you guess?" It was that time of the day where my sarcasm really stands out. Annabel only scrunched up her nose at me in response and stuck out her tongue. I could tell she was getting annoyed at me, so I then started to say, "I don't know his last name, I only just met him two days ago."

"Didn't you and Derek break up two days ago, though?" she inquired, her features softening with each word.

I stood there awkwardly and glanced up at the ceiling, and I let my eyes wander around the hallway as we walked from there. "Yeah. But Harry's really sweet and I figured I'd just give it a shot because—"

"Damn, girl you work fast!" She interrupted me, causing me to slap her on the arm lightly.

"Stop it! If you knew him, you would understand," I say lighter, defending myself and him as well. I didn't really know what exactly I was saying, but I flipped my hair to the side to hopefully glide my way out of this completely awkward conversation that had started.

"So uh, do Jake and Derek know of your sudden spur of the moment romance?" Annabel asked me indirectly trying not to be as blunt as she was being. She turned her head to look at me and gave me the eyes. .God. I know that look. She is definitely up to something, and whenever she has that look slapped across her face I know it's never good.

"No, and they DON'T need to," I stress how much I really am disliking this conversation now. What was she on about? "I wasn't even sure if I should tell you."

Annabel's eyes grew even wider, if humanly possible and she made a shocked face. "What? Why?"

"I honestly don't know where this is going exactly . . ." My voice gradually became softer and softer until it was barely above a whisper with each new word.

Annabel's face lit up instantly at this and her jaw dropped. I watched as it slowly closed and morphed into a devilish smile. "Details, now."

I didn't want to tell her anything. I don't know, I guess I was feeling especially anti-social today, it was weird and very unlike me but I guess Annabel has been pushing my buttons lately. But I really need to just suck it up and deal that she is one of my only friends who actually _cares _about me and I should be grateful for that. Even if she gets carried away sometimes. Regardless, I told her the entirety of the lengthy story. And when I say entirety, I mean literally every waking second. Annabel was like that, she wanted to hear absolutely everything and anything that was even remotely interesting. I told her everything from the second Derek dumped me to how Harry was acting especially weird about going out, to climbing the tree and reliving those horrible memories. It was all in the past now though, so Annabel and I got a good chuckle out of it.

"And so that's why I can't come to your house later," I finished, swiftly. I contemplated whether or not to throw in a little _the end _just for giggles.

"Jesus, Evie, this guy sounds like your prince charming."

"Have I mentioned that I only just met him on Valentine's Day?" I strain.

"Only forty times." She rolled her eyes at me and then continued, "But seriously! He sounds amazing, I think you should really get to know him tonight."

"But, remember what I said before? About how he was acting so weird about going out?"

We had completely skipped lunch and have been circling the school for the past twelve minutes. I was hungry and would definitely regret this later but it kind of felt relieving to talk to someone about all of this.

"Evie, stop being so gosh darned paranoid and go on that date. What have you got to lose? You like him right?"

"I do, a lot, yeah. But like . . . after today . . . I'm not sure because . . . "

"After today, because _what_?"

Oh, God. Could I really say it? What's been on my mind this entire day, what shouldn't have been at all? What I deeply regret and hate that it's true? What I realize now has been the core reason for my social awkwardness and moodiness today? What I really don't want to be true but is?

"Because I'm still in love with Derek."

**Excuse me **_**what **_**did Evie just say?! Uh-oh. Shiznet just got real you guys!**

**And I'm sorry but WHAT IS UP with Evie's mum? She's definitely hiding something, I'll tell ya that! **

**Find out what the heck is going to happen next real soon everyone! **

**R&R! :D **

**\/**


	6. White Eskimos and Oreo Sundaes

I'll Be Your Reason to be My Love

_**Chapter Six:**_

_**White Eskimos and Oreo Sundaes**_

_**February 16th, 2011**_

Annabel did not respond well to my news. I actually can't believe I said it myself, especially so bluntly like that. But whatever. What was really scaring me was that I genuinely meant it and I didn't know how to deal with it. Why did Derek even break up with me in the first place? Did he even give me a valid reason?

_"I need my distance, it seems as if I think about you too often and I can't focus on anything else…but I don't even see how that is since you never seem to listen to a bloody thing I say anymore…and you've become rather boring . . . "_

I cringe, the words still fresh in my mind. I remembered every single syllable that he had uttered to me that day. And I really, desperately wish that I hadn't. It was honestly tearing me apart, piece by piece slowly inside. And I most certainly don't want to deal with it anymore. But how could something that was going so good for so long just end like that? I think something had gotten into him . . . but what? I wanted to find out so bad . . .

Wait. What about Harry? The boy I was going on a _freaking date_with in a few hours? Was I using him for comfort or something? I don't know. But truthfully, I can say that I am excited for tonight. And with that last thought, I softened my features as my eyes teetered over to the clock. It was 2:15 and school let out in fifteen minutes. My eyes glanced over to Jake who was seated in the row next to me. I know it must be awkward for him, his two best friends breaking up all out of the blue but imagine how it makes me feel. As I've said before:

Slowly. Killing. Me. Inside.

Jake shot me back a worried look. I did my best to lighten my mood and flash him a small smile to let him know everything was okay. Even though, you know, it totally was not. But I guess life goes on. I watched him as I noticed his eyes widen and I know in that look that Annabel had told him what I told her had been plaguing me lately. Jake's been acting weird about it ever since. I think he can feel my pain, I'm torn and there's nothing I can do about it.

At precisely 2:22, Mrs. Collins dismissed us to talk amongst ourselves. I lifted my body out of my seat, grabbed my book bag and sulked over to Jake. I looked at him, not taking my eyes off of him as I let my bag fall to the floor as I hoisted myself up on top of the empty desk directly in front of him. "Hey," I started out smoothly.

"Hey," he said, still that dazed expression on his face.

Jake was American, same as my accent distinguished. I know, it's complicated but here's the story: I was born in Westminster but then my dad was offered an incredible job offer as CEO of some company in New York City. So we moved there when I was almost two years old. We remained there for eight years until I was nine years old, causing me to develop an American accent. When my mom and dad went through a nasty divorce, she brought me back here. Really, I am British and I keep my accent slight English, but if I'm not focused or paying attention my American accent will come out. Very complicated.

Jake's story is much less detailed than mine as far as his big move to a whole other continent goes. He had always loved the country and as far as New Jersey goes, I could see why he would want to move. He got a chance as a foreign exchange student here, and the next year due to his phenomenal grades he got a scholarship at St. Augustine's CE high school. Which I thought was pretty cool. Plus the fact that sometimes I'm the only one who understands his American slang makes me feel pretty honoured sometimes.

"What's going on with you?" Jake inquired, rather blatantly, jumping me out of my haze.

"What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean and so do I," he paused as he looked sincerely in my eyes, as if with that gaze he could tell me what to do with my life. "I don't think this is like you, what's gotten into you?"

I close my eyes for a second and advert my glare from him to the window. I glance and see how the birds are flying so freely from the telephone wires as they dance along surfacing into the air. They look so peaceful, so liberating and instantly I'm envious. The way that they can just frenzy from place to place in an instant is enough to set me over the edge. I admire their grace in doing so along with their emancipating way about them. Why can't I be a bird?

I am broken out of my trance at the sound of Jake snapping his fingers in my face. Rude. "That's exactly what I mean!" he exclaims at me. He licks his lips before demanding again, "What has gotten into you?"

At that, the bell rings, awakening us all as we make a beeline for the door. But Jake just stays put.

I sigh, not sure if it was contentedly, pitiful or sad but whatever it was it was a nice exhalation of air as I lowered myself from the desk to grab my back and bolt out of there and say to myself, "Love."

"You look—"

"Save it!" I say, grabbing my purse to exit my house.

It was six o'clock on the dot and Harry sure kept his word. I didn't have to worry about my mum catching me leaving either, since of course it was another late night at work. Ugh. I really wish I knew what the fire truck was going on with her lately. I guess I'll find out soon enough but I want to erase everything from my brain and just focus on having fun.  
I was dressed in my black tight leggings with lace on each side of the lower leg, my beige light fabric top that revealed my shoulders a bit that was a little loose fitting but nothing extreme, with semi-high brown leather pumps. I thought it was saying casual yet somewhat sophisticated. My hair was straight but actually had volume today as I parted my bangs in the middle and braided them to the sides to get them out of my face. I think the clips that were supporting the braids added height to my hair.

Harry was dressed in a casual white button up t-shirt with a forest green light blazer-jacket draped over him, sported with black jeans. I thought it went well with his cute, white sneakers. Of course, Harry's hair looked perfect I'm sure whether he just rolled out of bed so that pretty much covers that. I felt that his green blazer really brought out his amazing eyes.

My eyes lowered from his face to his hands as he held them up like he meant no harm, directed to my last comment I presume. I then watched as his left hand dropped to his side and his right opened out towards me. I took his gesture as a hint, and placed my left hand in his right. He shifted his hand so that our fingers laced together as I adjusted the door for us to get through and leave. I slammed the door shut and locked it and we walked down the porch steps.

Nando's was only a few blocks away from my house, as is I swear, _everything,_so we walked it once again. After a minute of walking, I was lost deep in thought and then realized at that moment how lucky I actually was. God was giving me so many chances this year. I mean, I've had boyfriends before but not many who actually cared and liked me as much as I liked them. And even though many didn't work out, at least I was given shots which I know is hard for some people to even get in life.

As we walked a smile formulated upon my lips and I turned my head to my right and looked up at Harry. His features were neutral and his hair barely moved as he walked swiftly in the night. I was actually at that moment baffled by his beauty. The way his eyes glistened in the darkness almost parallel to the gleam of the twangs of twinkles of the stars in the sheer ebony sky. I was star-struck. I felt as if he was truly a genuinely amazing person that walked into my life. Upon this epiphany, I smiled up at him widely and it didn't take long for him to turn his head and look at me back in the eyes. That was another thing I liked about him. When he looked you in the eyes it felt like he was boring his entire existence into your soul. Some might be freaked out by that but frankly, I liked it. It made you feel special or important or like you had the floor and everyone's attention was on you. It made you feel wanted and his stare was absolutely welcoming.

"What?" His serious face quickly turned into a dumfounded yet adorable little smile, matching mine.

"Nothing," I say in a casual tone, the same smile placed on my face as I turned my head back to its original position to look down at the sidewalk ahead of me.

"Come on, Evie," he pressed on, squeezing my hand tight as he swung our arms up and down a bit. "Tell me what's got you smiling like that!" he laughed.

My face turned serious for a moment, deep in thought. Then I reverted my gaze back to Harry and resumed my smile. "You."

At this, he smiled back quickly but sweetly and looked behind us. When he saw no one in sight he stopped in his tracks, causing me to come to a halt as well. I turned my full body towards him and he reached his free hand over to mine and held it as he neared closer to me. With our stomachs nearly touching, he bent and leaned in to me as I enjoyed the blissful moment when our lips met. It was short but sweet and soft and tender. I wanted more.

He was the one who broke away first, our hands still holding. He smiled down at me and took his left hand to gently run it over my cheek and place a strand of fly away hair behind my ear. We stood there for a moment, admiring each other in the evening air.

Harry stopped walking causing me to stop as well. My arm dangled awkwardly as he pushed me back. "Whoa! Nando's is this way." I pointed in the direction in front of me.

"We're not going there, love."

"But you sa—"

"I lied," he said, cutting me off in my sentence. He then grinned and turned his head to the side, gesturing towards a restaurant called Quirinale. I've heard of the place but never actually had the money to step one foot inside the establishment. It was quite the romantic place, if I do say so myself. "Come on!" he hollered, and he led me inside.

Suddenly, I was surrounded by the fumes of baked pastries and delicious food. It even looked enchanting as waiters passed us, lightly. I was actually really surprised at Harry's attempt to impress me, it was getting quite adorable. My eyes glanced around all over the place. Whoa, it really was extraordinary.

"Harry, this is really awesome." I knew I sounded like an idiot but I was too mind-blown by the entirety of this night and it hasn't even officially started yet.

He just chuckled as he escorted me to my seat and even pulled out the chair for me. I daintily sat down as he pushed me in more to the table. I smiled up at him sweetly, expressing my thanks and he made his way to the seat in front of me. That's when he finally spoke.

"So, how's this for totally-not-a-date?" He leaned in to the table and grabbed the water that was poured in a glass as he sipped it.

"Oh, give it up. You and I both know this is totally a date." I laugh once and mimic his actions of reaching for the water in front of me.

At this, his eyebrows raise as he looks down at the floor and then puts down the water firmly on the table. He stares at it for a good moment and then returns his gaze to mine. "Good. 'Cos I want it to be."

"Y-you do?" I stuttered for a second. This was somewhat of a reality check towards me.

"Of course I do, Evie. What do you think I don't like you or something?" he smirked like _that's crazy_and I believe my heart skipped a beat.

"I like you, too," I blurted out kind of blatantly and out there but I really wanted to let him know how I felt. And I meant this, I honestly did.

"Well I like you more."

I stopped him right there. This is where I draw the line. "No, nu-uh. Not doing the cutesy couple liking thing!"

He reached his arm across the table and engulfed my hand with his, they were rather large and his voice just above a whisper, "But I mean it."

I'll admit he was beyond cute. Hell, what was I saying this boy was _definitely_attractive. But I still couldn't help but feel like he was still somewhat of a stranger to me, so I decided to break the ice a little bit. "All right, pretty boy don't get carried away here. The night's still young."

He chuckled to himself and we began to chat.

Two filet mignons, three waters and half of an ice cream parfait later, I had learned so much about Harry. He had an older sister, an incredible mom, divorced parents like I, and had lived in Holmes Chapel forever. That is, up until last year when he moved to Westminster, London. We were actually really alike in that fact that none of our parents had dated in at least what seemed like a million years. He also told me that he loved to cook, as did I, and that he worked in a bakery. On the side he said he loved to sing and that he was in a band called White Eskimo. I really liked that name, it seemed completely original and I wondered if they were still together as a band. He didn't say so much about it though, and I didn't want to pry so I didn't ask. Though he did mention that he had four amazing best friends and that they were really close, I thought that was cute.

"And that's why Louis is superman!"

Harry had just finished telling me a story about his best mate and his fascination with superman. I couldn't help but to crack up uncontrollably at the stupidity of the whole situation. I was laughing so hard that my stomach hurt as I managed to let it while clutching it, "That is crazy!" Harry stopped laughing and his eyes widened at me. His expression was slightly unreadable causing me to ask, "What?!" through my chuckles.

"You're American?" Oh great, and apparently my New York accent was coming out too.

I swallowed, an uneasy feeling in my stomach as I explained to him. When I finished, he had a smirk on his face while saying, "I love American girls."

"I'm not even genuinely American!" I exclaimed, my British accent returning. I can't even believe this is happening right now. This _never_happens to me. I ducked my head down a bit in embarrassment.

"Still, the accent is incredibly," he paused, lurching himself towards my direction from across the table whilst whispering lowly, "sexy."

I almost choke on the Oreo I was working on that was incorporated in the parfait. I look up at him with innocent eyes, "Oh?"

He nodded once but slowly, leaning back in his seat and then winking. "I think you should speak in your actual voice, it's a major turn on."

Scratch that, I _most definitely_choke on that Oreo. "Uhm, excuse me are you pretty much asking for it in the middle of a restaurant?" I ask haughtily but in a playful tone, American accent and all. What? I, of course, could not pass up an opportunity like this to make Harry all jittery in his seat.

"I'm a risk taker," he whispered. There he goes again with the seductive low whispering in the middle of a total public place like we do this all the time. Yeah.

"Yeah, well I don't think you'll be seeing any risks tonight." Even if I kind of wanted it too. Not that I would ever admit that to him. Well maybe . . .

"Didn't think so . . . hey can I have a bite of that?" he gestured towards my chocolate-oreo parfait and pointed as I pushed it towards him. We both dove our spoons in at the same time, making a clanking noise. I watched as he put the spoon to his mouth and delved into the deliciousness that is chocolate. As he swallowed, his eyes widened before they rolled back in his head slowly and groaned, "MMM! It's like God giving birth in my mouth!" He leaned his head back and grunted.

I took my napkin from my lap, reached across the table and slapped his upper chest with it. "Shut up!" I giggled. Though he was right. He returned his head to its normal position and reached his spoon in for another bite. "Hey don't eat it all!" I tried nudging his hand away and swat his spoon with my own but it was no use as he made his way around it.

"Sharing is caring!" he yelled back at me as he surprised me by stealing an Oreo. Soon enough, the waiter came around with the check and Harry pulled out his wallet. As he fished for money he asked me, "When can I see you again?"

"Soon!" I exclaimed excitedly.

"What are you doing this weekend?" Well, he was a bit forward but of course I didn't mind it at all. In fact, I admired him for his confidence. It was inspiring, but not obnoxious in any way since I did notice times when he became shy and insecure. Which was nice. It showed me that he had many sides to his personality.

"Absolutely noth—oh wait." I paused, remembering. That concert with Annabel was this weekend. And her parents over the phone today even confirmed it with my mom and I. They're driving us down to Doncaster and spending the weekend in some fancy hotel. Joy. "I'm going to a concert with my best friend this weekend." I made a disappointed face.

"What, the one who made you cry?" Well he was being _very_straightforward now.

"Harry, I told you to drop that!"

"I'm sorry but I'm not very fond of her . . . " he trailed off.

I took a huge sip of my water. What I wouldn't do for a beer or at least some type of alcoholic beverage at this moment. "That's because you haven't even met her. You don't know anything about her!" Now I had gone in defensive mode. I was sure to keep my tone a bit playful, though. I didn't want to start any arguments, especially not with Harry.

"I don't think anyone's worth your tears, you don't deserve that," he said slowly as he looked back at me for a reaction. Which was probably a mix between utter shock and unreadable since I had no idea how to process my emotions at the time. Harry really was something else.

Question: Is it possible to be in love with someone within a forty-eight hour time period?

Because honestly, that was what was happening. And I didn't know how to respond to that so I just sat there, staring at him. Hoping that my stare gave off even the slightest hints of gratitude in my expression.

I think he caught on to my uneasiness and reverted back to the previous topic, "Who's concert are you going to?"

"Oh God I can't even remember the name but it's something really stupid and unoriginal. Like One Way, One World, One Area . . . ? I don't know something like that." Bloody hell, what was that groups name?

"Never heard of them," he chuckled back in his seat. "So you'll be gone all weekend?"

"Yeah," I sighed. I couldn't abandon Annabel, especially not her parents like that. Suddenly I got an idea. My eyes enhanced and I shot up in my seat. "Well maybe on Friday you could come over and help me pack my stuff. Annabel, my friend, will be there and you can finally meet her."

He smiled. "Splendid!"

I just sat there in ease as waves of excitement flowed through me.

Harry walked me back to my house after dinner was over and sure enough, my mother _still_wasn't home. I received a text from her saying that she won't be home until afternoon tomorrow. Well, at least there was no school tomorrow. Ugh, but I know I'm going to be lonely this is great.

When we reached my house, our walking came to a halt and Harry spun me around so that I was facing him. I looked down at the ground, bending my head but then subconsciously looked up at him. He placed his hands on my hips, forcing me to huddle in close to his body. Sliding his hands across from my hips to my back he crossed his hands, entrapping me in his embrace. I inched in even closer and lifted my head up to gaze at him. As I did this, he bent his head down and met my lips, kissing them softly at first but then with complete and total force. It sent chills down my body and I had totally forgot about my insecurities that I had experienced earlier this day.

I was most definitely not in love with Derek anymore. With that weight lifted off my shoulders, a new one came on, this one being that I was completely falling for Harry way too fast. But I still couldn't help but like every bit of it.

"I don't want to leave you," he said quietly so that only I could hear.

"Then don't," I blurted out, not knowing what came over me as I continued. "my mom won't be home until late tomorrow. You _could_stay the night." I raised my eyebrows at him.

"Well, maybe I will be taking those risks tonight after all." His eyes wandered around in the night as he added, "I mean if you're sure?"

God he was so cute and the fact that he even asked me that showed me that he actually cared about me. I just smiled as I led him to my doorstep, "Babe, I'm _more than sure._"


	7. Serendipity Or Coincidence?

**I'll Be Your Reason to be My Love**

* * *

_**Chapter Seven:**_

_**Serendipity . . . or Coincidence?**_

_**February 16th, 2011**_

"Hehe, stop that!" I giggled.

Harry and I were both lying on my living room couch. We were both shifting our weight on our left sides, as Harry's back was pressed upon the board of the couch and his arms were around me, just a little above my stomach. My back was to him and we were cuddling up to watching _Serendipity. _It was my favourite film and the ending drives me absolutely mad and makes me completely lose it. Harry tightened his grip on me as he nuzzled his face into the crook of my neck and kissed it. This was extremely ticklish to me and caused me to be unable to focus on the movie, so I leaned my head back into his face and said, "You're gonna make me miss my favourite part!"

We were only about fifteen minutes in, but my favourite part was when Jonathan and Sara are both at the same hotel, going to the same floor but they both don't know it and that they're totally meant to be after all. It's so much irony I can't handle it!

Harry straightened himself up, slightly, returning his hand to its previous position around my waist. He cleared his throat as I lifted myself up more upright as I exclaimed with ecstasy, "Watch this part, watch this part!" I jumped in my seat as I gasped and pointed at the screen.

It was the part when Sara and Jonathan both pressed the elevator button to go to floor twenty-three. But of course, Jonathan's elevator was delayed and he didn't get there on time. If something like that ever happened to me I don't think I'd be able to bear it. I actually started to tear up.

"Whoa that sucks! Gah, it's like Inception!" Harry yelled in shock at the turn of events.

"No, Inception was a film of pure confusion. This my friend, is art." I raised my hand to my face to wipe away a tear that was threatening enough to roll down my cheek.

Harry leaned over, noticed me and whispered, "Hey, no crying allowed." He reached over and grazed his thumb across my cheek affectionately and kissed it. I closed my eyes, basking in the moment before jumping out of my seat and onto my two feet and announced, "I'm gonna make popcorn!"

Harry smiled in approval and I made my way around to the kitchen. I got the box from the cabinet, but decided to make two instead; we were both really big eaters. I got a bowl and started filling it to the top when I felt two strong arms entangle themselves around my waist securely. I smiled, enjoying the feeling as I bit my lip and turned around shoving a handful of popcorn in his face.

"Mm, is it just me or is this popcorn a little burnt?" he smirked, teasing me.

"Well excuse me, Mr. I Work In A Bakery!" I threw a piece of popcorn at him and watched as it bounced off of his chest onto the floor.

He laughed at my attempt and then threw on a playful smile. "You know I'm just kidding. Here." He grabbed another handful of popcorn and shoved it in his face. "Mmmm, it's like Heaven just exploded in my mouth!"

I gaped at him with a wide smile and threw another piece of popcorn at him. "What is it with all these wild food comparisons?" I tried to refrain from cracking up on my floor.

"I looooove food. But not as much as my band mate, Niall."

He laughed very briefly and then stopped and stood there as if we were waiting for something to start. Hmm. That name sounded oddly familiar…did I know a Niall? I decided to just keep quiet as I said, "Your band mate! So your band, White Eskimo, is still together?"

"Erm . . . sort of."

Wait what? How are you 'sort of' still together as a band? Though by the somewhat pained and slightly unreadable expression Harry had on his face, I could tell he didn't want to talk about it but my curiosity was killing me. I somehow drifted from the subject. "Well, I'd love to hear you guys sing sometime. I love guys who sing," I paused, lifting my eyebrows, as I referenced him from earlier tonight, "it's incredibly . . . sexy."

I inched closer to him, the bowl of popcorn still firmly in my right hand as I reached over to his curls and twirled them with my left, taunting him. I watched as his expression turned serious and I could tell that I was tantalizing him. I stopped and walked over back into the living room, and set the popcorn dish down on the coffee table. He followed me and I turned around and said, "I'll be right back!"

As I walked down my hallway to get to the bathroom, I heard the doorbell ring. Ugh. Too lazy to walk back and see who it was, so I shouted down the corridor to Harry, "Could you be a dear and get that?"

"Yup!" he hollered back at me as I sauntered into the bathroom and closed the door. Wonder who that could be.

**-Harry's Point of View-**

I heard the door slam shut from down the hallway as I made my way to the front door. I smiled as I noticed her little holiday decoration wreath from Christmas was still hung upon the hook. I flicked the tinsel and then pulled open the door. When my eyes drifted to the visitor my eyes widened to their fullest and I'm pretty sure my jaw was down to the ground.

"Louis?"

"Hey, Haz. I found you." He smiled cheekily at me and I had to resist the urge I had to smack that smile right off of his face.

"Okay, what are you doing here and how did you find me?" I stood there interrogating him, as I was baffled beyond my reason.

"Easy. You have your location turned on, on your tweets and you tweeted 'wonderful dinner' an hour ago. Duh," he quickly said, sounding much like a smartass.

I kind of felt stupid for a minute, but I let it pass as I didn't have time for this right now, thank you very much. "Okay well, you need to get out of here. Like _now,_" I stressed as I tried pushing him back, out of the doorway.

"This is a fine little establishment you're at. Who's here? A _girrrl_?" he jeered, hoisting himself on his tip toes, peering over my shoulder.

"No, it's just an old friend, now would you _please _leave?" I kind of sounded like a diva right now, but I could care less. This was Louis after all, and above all people he should be the one to understand when I mean he needs to get out of here. Right this second.

"Ooh, what are you hiding you sly boy?" he was still attempting to peek his eyes around the house, as he watched for any movement to take place. His eyes stopped moving and it was as if they were frozen in place. I turned around to see what he was looking at, and turns out it was a huge poster of Zac Efron in that weird American film . . . that musical one. I quickly jolted my head back to the boy wearing red braces and watched his smile grow too sneaky. "You're definitely at a girl's house."

"Right, yes I am at a girl's house. And you really need to leave because she doesn't know about—"

"Harry?" I was interrupted by Evie's soft voice that sounded like those of an angel. I swear, the way it was just so cute and girly made me go crazy. I even sound crazy right now. Right. I snapped my head in her direction.

"Erm, hi." I had no idea what to say to advert this awkwardness. What was I supposed to say, _sorry my friend stalked me to your house because at the moment he's being an incredible sneaky bastard? _Yeah.

"Hi," she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and her eyes darted over behind me to Louis, "uh, who's this?"

"Hi, love, I'm Louis." He beat me before I could say anything. He smiled at her like this was completely normal and was done on a daily basis. Well played, Louis, well played. "I'm Harry's best mate." He gave her the most innocent smile I had ever seen on him. "But I'm sure you've heard of us from—"

"The library!" It was the first thing that popped into my head. I had to stop him right then and there. I couldn't ruin this. "Yeah, we're top borrowers there, got our names plastered right on the front wall. Huge recognition we got there," I stuttered uncontrollably. I tried to signal to Louis not to say anything about the circumstance we were in. I nodded to him 'she doesn't know' and head motioned swiftly to Evie, a bit awkwardly. I watched as Louis's eyes widened and he opened his mouth suspiciously. Oh God.

"Right. Well, I was just coming over here to tell Harry that we have some uhm, _very _important hard work to do at the library," he leaned his head forward at me and raised his eyebrows up and down, "and the librarian Paul has some news for us that you'll want to hear. But seeing as your busy I guess it can wait until tomorrow."

Louis's facial expression softened in a joking manner and lingered in my brain. His eyes lurched over to Evie. He looked at her lecherously and I didn't like it one bit. I had to restrain myself from kicking him out right then and there. What was he doing? That look in his eye gleamed and made me forget everything he had explained prior to it. I really didn't like the circumstances of things right now and I was starting to feel a little insecure, around my own best mate. Well, this was awkward.

I turned my whole body around to Evie. I was disappointed and a little more than angry when I found she was looking back at him the exact same way. What was this?

"Well now, Harry you didn't tell me you were at a _pretty_ girl's house," he blurted, still looking at Evie as his smirk formulated into a smile.

_What?_

I eyed them over once more as my emotions got the best of me. Before I knew it, I was pushing Louis out of the doorway and out into the cold air. "Yeah, see you tomorrow, Louis." I slammed the door in his face and glanced back at Evie once more. She looked as if she were boring her gaze into the ground, thinking cautiously but intently. A little smile was peeking at the edge of her mouth, cutely. I just stared at her and waited for her to return my gaze.

When she did, the smile defining her lips now was faded. She must have noticed my look of anger. My eyebrows were furrowed and my eyes were focused and my lips were pursed into a fine thin line. I clenched my fists.

Wait. _Was I jealous?_

Jealous that _she didn't look at me that way?_

I tried softening my features, I mean I didn't want to seem like I had anger management or anything. When that didn't work at all, I walked up to her. I studied her face as her eyes were plastered on mine. I couldn't stand this burning envy I felt in the pit of my stomach. I tried my best to let it subside, but nothing was doing the trick. In a battle of my own emotions, I rapidly walked over to her, stomping my feet in effect and grabbed her by the wrist. I firmly pulled it so that it was positioned securely around my waist, forcing us to stand close to each other. I looked at her, the devious teasing yet aggressive feelings apparent in my eyes. She seemed as if she was a little drawn aback by my actions and her eyes were wide. Looking down from her eyes to her lips, I leaned in and kissed her fiercely and passionately. It was probably one of the deepest kisses we've shared and I can't say that I didn't enjoy it. Subconsciously, I had started to ride my right hand up her body and stopped when it was placed on her chest, in between her envious feeling almost evaporated entirely.

Almost.

That is, up until Evie uncharacteristically swatted me away and pushed herself back from me. Was she mad too? I hadn't seen her like this ever before.

"Jesus, what do you think you're doing?" She pushed away from me and took a few steps back.

Her tone was starting to scare me, yet I was so tied in with my own anger still that I didn't acknowledge it. "What?" I questioned.

"Uhh," her voice frayed as she motioned her hands to hover over the place on her torso that I had just so adventurously explored. "a little touchy-feely we're getting now?"

"Oh." I furrowed my eyebrows and glanced at the ground briefly discouraged, and then returned my gaze back to her. "Sorry," I replied sheepishly.

She gave me a side-swept aspect of confusion and asked, "Uh, is everything okay?" She was a bit reluctant to take a step forward, I noticed.

"Yeah," I said. I was going to leave it at that but my strong-willed self-got the best of me so I continued, "except you know, Louis was just flirting with you in front of my face but . . ." I muttered under my breath, trailing off.

"What, your friend? Oh please, Harry I barely know the guy!" She exclaimed, reasonably.

I was beginning to get a little fed up. Was she testing me now . . .? Whatever, I should just let this whole thing blow over. But I still couldn't help but to feel rejected by the way Evie seemed disgusted by the way I touched her. I admit, it appeared a little forward but was she that repulsed by me . . .?

I don't know.

**-Evie's Point of View-**

Harry was acting weirder by the minute and now he was starting to come off as a jealous jerk. My mind wandered. I kind of found this really cute that he was so protective of me and it gave me a feeling of safety but I should be mad, right?

He was silent for a few minutes. I didn't know what else to say and this whole thing was completely ridiculous. Sure I may have connected with him for about a millisecond but come on. That's like saying Jake and I are meant to be, which is crazy.

I watched as Harry clenched his fists numerous times, his nails digging in deep to skin that they left little half-circle marks. I didn't like this sudden turn of events can we just rewind and go back to cuddling on the couch please?

When he still said nothing, I noticed him looking intently down at his hands. I think he had realized how rough he was actually being on himself to contain his anger. I felt a bit of remorse, this was quite an awkward turn of events. Slowly yet cautiously, I strolled over to him and took his hand in mine. I lifted it and caressed it gently, holding the back of his hand in my palm, and using my other hand to run three fingers over noticing the red marks on it. I looked up at him. His mood was changing, as he was becoming less distant but not by much.

"I'm sorry if you thought I was flirting with your mate. But I was just trying to be friendly." I tried to keep my tone as innocent as possible and shoot him my to die for puppy dog eye look. When he was still silent, I propped myself up on my tip-toes and kissed him longingly on the cheek.

He shot me a tiny sweet smile and finally spoke. "All right, I believe you. Louis, however, I'll have to give a strict talking to."

I laughed and then smiled sincerely back at him. I loved how he got jealous at his best friend over me and I was starting to think that he really liked me. Which was good because the feeling was totally mutual. "All right envy-pants, can we finish watching the movie now?"

He nodded and we walked back to the couch, resuming our previous positions before this whole escapade occurred. Once we were settled, he reached his arm over my waist and grasped for my hand.

We laced our fingers together and stayed like that for the remainder of the movie. When it was late, and we were both close to sleep, I heard Harry mutter my name. Too tired to make a full response, I just moaned in reply.

Quietly he whispered, "I know I haven't known you long at all but I like you. A lot."

My eyes shot open. I was wide awake now. I loved hearing him say those words it was comforting and exactly what I wanted to hear. In reply I muttered, "I like you a lot too."

"No, I mean I think I like you more than I've ever liked anyone before," he confessed, "and I just hope you stay in my life for a long time."

I didn't know what to say. "Don't worry, Harry. I'm not going anywhere. Besides we still can qualify as acquaintances, this short time we've known each other. There can't possibly be that many skeletons in your closet."

I felt him tense up against my body. Oh God, did I say something wrong? "Heh, yeah. Erm, goodnight Evie."

Too tired to question his sudden awkwardness, I only replied, "Goodnight."

* * *

_**February 19th, 2011**_

Friday was finally here, at last. I figured I'd have a nice, laid back, stay at home weekend like some of the kids at my school do, but no. I have to travel all the way to the other side of Britain with a crazy obsessed fangirl. Great.

Ever since Tuesday, I hadn't seen Harry or Louis at all. Though I did text Harry throughout the course of the week, the conversations haven't gotten anywhere past a basic chat of 'what's up.' But today I got to see Harry, briefly before I leave for the weekend. Can't say that I wasn't totally excited and pumped for that. Plus, Annabel finally gets to meet the boy who I told her I'd been hung up on. When I told her everything about Tuesday night, she totally freaked out. At first, she had thought I'd gone full out all the way with him. Knowing that I was no virgin, she automatically assumed when I said 'slept together' that I meant sex, but I didn't. I would certainly never do this on a first date.

Scratch that, I would certainly never do this when I still don't even know the guy's last name. When I told Annabel that, being her obsessed self, said that she would take it that I was dating the oh so infamous Harry Styles whom I don't even know what he looks like. What an excitement. After that, I shoved it in her face that she would actually get to meet him today and I would prove to her that I definitely was not dating this Harry Styles kid. God, what it takes to prove that child wrong.

Finally, it was four o'clock and Annabel ad been here for a good twenty minutes when I texted Harry to get his butt over here. When he said he was on his way, Annabel and I chatted about the concert. Like who the actual heck these people were. She had to get it through to me that their band name was One Direction and that they were 'the most talented people on the planet.' Yeah, okay.

In the middle of our little chat, Annabel screeched. Okay ow, it was a real ear piercing, wincing type of screech. I asked her what all the possible commotion could be about, she replied with that she forgot her poster of Zayn that she wanted him to sign at home. Since these were specific VIP tickets, we actually got to go backstage and meet these guys and have them sign stuff. I of course had nothing but Annabel had a whole bag full of crap. Sigh.

She rushed out the door and into her car, yelling at me that she'll be back in twenty minutes. Fine by me. Just as her car exited the side of my driveway, another one pulled up. I peeked out the window to see who it was and sure enough, it was Harry. Of course he shows up right when Annabel disappears. Nonetheless, I opened the door and greeted him with a hug and told him that he just missed Annabel.

"But you could stay until she gets back." I smiled.

"I actually have to go in five minutes, but I just wanted to show up and see your pretty face before you leave." Returning the smile, there were hints of drained disappointment in his voice. He was so sweet.

I leaned up and kissed him quick and sighed. "All right. I'll miss you. I feel like I haven't seen you in forever!" And it was true. It's been an eternity since I'd seen that face.

"I know, me too. Which is why I need extra lovin'." He smirked as he leaned down and kissed me, longer than I had him. I giggled and reached up and pushed his curls out of his face. He was wearing a green-brown beanie so his face was totally exposed except for some escaping strands of hair from the sides.

As I was doing so, I noticed a creepy man with a small device in his hands that I couldn't make out. I pointed to him and Harry turned around. "Do you know that guy or something?"

"Uh, no. Let's go inside." He pushed us so that we were fully inside of my house now and not just in the doorway. We made our way over to the couch that was to the left of the entrance and plopped ourselves down. We bonded for about a good ten minutes when suddenly I found Harry was sucking on the skin on my neck. It felt good but then he bit down on it and I gasped in slight pain.

"Hey, hey what are you doing?"

He pulled away and bit his lip before saying, "Just making my mark on you, babe."

I swatted his sweater with my hand. "You're so dirty." I rolled my eyes.

"I just want everyone to know that you're mine."

Was I? I wouldn't mind that at all actually so I said, "Oh, well in that case... do continue." I made my voice low as he began again.

When Annabel finally came back, Harry was long gone. She was jumping up and down with excitement that not only did she find the hot picture of Zayn, but the sexy one! Oh, my gosh how exciting!

Yeah, welcome to my world.

"Right then, are we ready to go now?" I picked up all of my hair and tied it back into a low ponytail. It was especially annoying today.

"Yea-wait." I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion as Annabel made her way towards me, coming closer. She pushed my hair to the right side and grasped my neck and pointed. Her eyebrows shot up. "What's this?"

I knew where she was gesturing to. "Uh, nothing." Smooth.

"Dude! What was your new boyf over here and gave you a quickie while I was gone?"

I slapped her hand away violently. "No! And he's _not _my boyfriend."

"He's not your boyfriend but he's giving you hickeys. Okay." Ugh I hated it when she was being a wise arse.

"Would you shut up and get in the car?" I was getting annoyed with the conversation. Was Harry my boyfriend? He hadn't flat out said it yet we acted semi like a couple . . . I don't know the whole situation was just screwed up and backwards but that's what made things interesting. I found my hand lingering absentmindedly to the spot on my neck.

Well I knew one thing for sure. I _wanted _him to be my boyfriend.

* * *

**Whoa guys this chapter is long :o well I hope you enjoyed and thank you for the lovely views and comments(:**

**Things are getting so suspenseful guys! **

**You'll just have to wait and see what surprises come up in the next chapter...**

**And keep an eye on Evie's mom, there's something suspicious going on with her.**

**YAY for Harry's point of view and Louis! :D **


	8. Secret Concert, Secretly Harry Styles

**I'll Be Your Reason to be My Love**

_**Chapter Eight:**_

_**Secret Concert, Secretly Harry Styles**_

_**February 20**__**th**__**, 2011**_

Today was the big day. For Annabel, anyway. I could really care less but I wanted to be a good friend to her. Besides, there was no way in Hell that Jake was coming. To a concert filled with thousands of high pitched screaming fangirls over five sweaty, teenaged guys? Yeah, when pigs fly. Jake's been acting distant anyway, we haven't talked since Wednesday. This usually never happens. I texted him asking about the math homework but received no answer. He's even been sitting at Derek's old table at lunch time. Ugh. Derek.

I'm better off without him.

At that moment, Annabel barged in the bathroom of our hotel suite. I was in there, applying mascara but soon stopped as I said, "Jeez Bell, knock much?"

She shrugged while walking straight to the mirror next to me and muttered, "Eh." She was determined to make sure her hair was perfectly curled, paying strict individual attention to every strand. That little control freak. I was feeling lazy today and just let my hair hang straight. I noticed that my green eyes had a special gleam in them today.

Soon enough, it was time for the concert. Aside from Annabel's pitched shrieks, she managed to grab all of her crap and shove it into her bag in one swift move. Well done. And with that, we were off.

* * *

The VIP meeting was after the concert, so we headed straight into the arena. Annabel had a one of those giant Kodak cameras hung around her neck and must have snapped at least ten pictures of just the fangirls in there, alone. Not to mention she had one hold all of her crap and make her take a photo of Annabel and I next to the entrance. When I asked her why she would be selfish enough to make that poor girl hold all of that stuff (it was really heavy) she replied with, "Hey, we're all part of the same, big, Directioner family."

Okay.

These boys hadn't even come on stage yet and a bunch of girls were screaming their brains out. I did my best to block all of their squeals out but it was to no avail. I'm going to be deaf by the end of this. At least, thankfully, Annabel had the decency to wait until these boys actually showed themselves to instantly fangirl. She turned to me and asked quite randomly, "So did you find out Harry's last name yet?"

Bugger. I kept forgetting to ask him so that Annabel will eternally shut up about it. "No."

"Right. Well, prepare to finally meet your boyfriend, Harry Styles!" Annabel giggled uncontrollably. She seemed to get a really good kick out of this. I just rolled my eyes. I didn't understand her sometimes. I could barely maintain one regular guy from school, let alone some superstar singer who had girls falling left and right for him.

The screams quieted for a split second and then they built up so high I swore I knew that I was going to lose my hearing. The decibel level was so high that it was off the charts, I assure you. I tried lifting myself up on my tip toes and arched my neck to the left and the right to try and actually see these boys, but everyone's customized signs that they made were blocking my vision. Not to mention, we weren't really in the front though we did have floor seats so it wasn't completely hopeless. Annabel said she wanted to get noticed, and the only way for that to happen was if she was actually in sight of their vision, so. I heard one of the boys start to speak, thanking the fans and explained their 'wonderful journey thus far' and blablabla. I yawned from boredom; this was going to be a long night. I surveyed the area, looking for anyone who might bear a resemblance to me.

Surprisingly, I found a girl with wavy long brown hair who was looking around the whole place and actually looked kind of stiff. She looked bored too. I turned my head to Annabel, and she was too consumed in the boy who was speaking who I couldn't even see to notice me. I sauntered over to the girl. She was standing next to another girl who had her head turned to the far left of the stage. She was crying. I figured why not, and tapped the brunette on the shoulder. She instantly turned to face me and I gave her a sympathetic look. "Friend drag you to the concert?"

"You have no idea," she replied. She had shiny brown eyes that matched her hair.

I nodded understandingly. "Same here. God, I can't even see anything with all these crazy big posters."

Her eyes widened, shocked. "Right? Is it really necessary to have signs the size of a billboard at a concert?"

"Exactly! I don't even want to be here but I mean, it'd be a little nice if I could actually see who I'm here for." I whined. This was really starting to piss me off actually.

"Yeah, at least get my money's worth, you know? I don't get what all the fuss is about them, though. They're no Coldplay."

"No way, that's my favourite band!" I exclaimed, truthfully. Though when I told Annabel the exact same thing, she only replied by telling me that on the X Factor, One Direction covered a Coldplay song. Oh joy to us all.

One Direction was a stupid band name. I didn't like it all, it was so plain and unfitting. It seemed like it had no meaning and that after their five minutes of fame were over, it would go by unnoticed. They were no Coldplay at all.

"Yep! They're the best. I'm Reyna by the way." She held out her hand to me.

I took it in my own and shook it firmly. This was going to be the beginning to a beautiful friendship. "I'm Evie." I smiled at her.

"Hey, are you American?"

Dang it. We had to scream on the top of our lungs in order to hear each other and I had completely forgotten about my 'slight' accent. Oh, well. I guess I was going all out now.

Not feeling like explaining my whole situation to her at a blaring concert, I just answered, "Uh, yeah."

"Cool!" she exclaimed, tilting her head to the side. The music had finally started, and the girls screams were still present but not as hyped and loud. One boy had started to sing. Screams got slightly higher, but died down as he continued on. I couldn't really hear that much but I could make out what he was saying.

"_And girl, what a mess I made upon your innocence."_

Whoa. Was it just me or did that line seem slightly dirty? Hmm, I thought they were a boy band? Reyna and I burst out laughing at the same time. Somewhere in between our hysterics, Annabel had found me and nudged at my shoulder. I turned to her as she said, "Eve, Eve, Harry Styles' part is coming up in a second!"

"That's great, Bell, but I still can't see a danged thing." And it was the truth. I could barely make out the shape of their shoes, and that was about it. The lights that were shining in on the stage were pretty much blinding, so I wouldn't want to see anyway. Suddenly, a real deep voice started singing and it was quite a transition. The boy before this one had a semi-deep voice and really hit high notes well. This one was extremely bass, but still calm and ….familiar. What?

Wait, wait. I've definitely heard this voice from somewhere before. But where? I've never heard Jake nor Derek sing before and their voices were definitely higher pitched than this, I haven't talked to my dad in forever so I doubt this would remind me of him . . . so where? Wait. I had to see who this was. I tried looking over peoples' heads and gigantic signs, but that was no use. I had to see who this was now. I turned back to Reyna and Annabel and held up a finger to them, signaling that I'll be back in a second. Okay, I was going to have to be pushy. Using all of my strength, I shoved my way through the crowd, slipping by slimly past spaces in between two people and after what seemed like an eternity, I still couldn't make out that much. After a full out series of propelled pushes, people actually began to start fanning out. They separated into two lines so that in the middle, there was space for me to walk. After that, everything began to go in slow motion. My swift, rapid actions turned to that of a snail.

I heard a few girls mutter things to their friends. "He's staring right at her…"

"Ugh, lucky biatch!"

One actually started singing, "Ohhh how I wish that was me!" Never heard that one before…

Anyway, I had no idea what they were talking about until I reached the very front of the stage. I looked up and saw what I had very, very least expected. Right there at the center of the stage was none other than Harry.

Not Harry Styles but _Harry. My Harry. _My Harry with the curls and the amazing hazel eyes that you could so easily find yourself getting lost in. My Harry who I had met only six days ago and had been dying to learn more about. My Harry that I had watched Serendipity with and slept over my house. My Harry that was in a band called White Eskimo. My Harry that gave me a love bite on my neck. This could only mean one thing. My Harry _was _Harry Styles. Oh God.

Am I sure I'm not seeing things? I looked into his eyes and they were staring back at me. At first, he had a shocked reaction but then his gaze softened as he sang, _"Can we fall, one more time? Stop the tape and rewind? Oh, and if you walk away I know I'll fade, 'cos there is nobody else . . . "_

That's exactly what I did. Walk away. Far away. Since the crowd was still fanned out on both sides, I didn't have trouble running the hell out of there. I looked back at him before finding the exit. He was still staring at me, now with a confused expression tinted with sadness. I can't believe he didn't tell me this, I was so fed up. I pried open the door, sniffling as the cold air hit me sharply. Though I knew nothing could be colder than listening to Harry's voice now. Unfortunately for me, I could still hear him faintly belt the line,

"_It's gotta be you."_

**-Harry's Point of View-**

I stood limply up on the stage. My hype from this opening song had died down the instant I spotted Evie walking out of that stadium door. I was kind of just there, not moving or making any type of gesture to show that I was living.

"_It's gotta be you," _I heard my voice crack. Damn it, this was bad. I can't even hit the high notes now. I had a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach and it wasn't just nerves from the show. Evie knows my secret and judging by the looks of it, things were not going well. I tried singing the next line to get on with the show.

"_Ohh, only you."_

My voice cracked yet again at the 'you.' I don't think many people noticed but I did hear a few 'boos' escape from the crowd. Great now I was ruining it for the whole band. My stomach was in knots and I began to sweat I think. My mind was somewhere else. And that's when I realized I couldn't do this. I had to get out of there now.

Even though my part was over, there was a bit of silence between then and when Zayn begins singing. Somehow I managed to finish the chorus, and waited until that silence and put the microphone to my mouth. I spoke up, "Uh, can we just— can we stop, for a second?" I turned to our guitarist and drummer, "Stop please?" I asked kindly. They did as I said as I turned to our audience. Trying to distinguish a mood between the mob, I saw a lot of girls staring me in the eye and giving me their full attention. My nerves were getting the better of me and my palms began to sweat profusely. I looked up at the ceiling to advert their gaze and I saw the boys shooting me looks of confusion and 'what the bloody hell are you doing' from my peripheral vision.

I ignored them and continued. "I screwed up . . . big time. There's this girl and I was wrong not to tell her who I was. We met only just a week ago, but I really like her and I want to be sure I didn't completely blow it. So I—I've got to go after her and make things right. I'm sorry, uhm—" I handed my mic off to a baffled Liam and bolted out of there.

Unfortunately for me, I had to go out the same way Evie did which caused a bunch of girls to dishevel my hair and run their fingers through it. One actually pried my jacket off of me but I didn't bother to get it back, it was long lost in the crowd now. One even dared to touch my crotch…I can't tell you how awkward that was.

When I finally reached the outside, I looked around. Where could she have gone? I surveyed the area and spotted a wooded clearing behind the stadium. Last time Evie had escaped she went to a forest-y place so why not? I shrugged and made a run for it. I just hope it's not too late to mend the problems I've created.

**-Evie's Point Of View-**

I ran as fast as I could into the woods. It wasn't much, but it was nature that would help me think more clearly, I hope. I just was in desperate need for some fresh air. Instantly, I received a text from Annabel.

_**What the hell was that?**_

I tapped the type bar on the screen and subtlety responded,

_**You may not believe this, but u were rite. **_

Too flustered to use correct grammar, I furiously jammed my fingers on the keys. A moment later, Annabel responded, _**"?"**_

I typed in haughtily,

_**I am dating Harry Styles.**_

_**So…you're the girl he was talking about . . .**_

Wait, what? When had Annabel even remotely communicated with Harry Styles? Quick and fiercely, I slammed on to the touch screen, "_**What?**_"

I got a video in reply. This should be interesting. I sniffled back my cries, leaned against the back of a tree, as I hit the play button.

**-Harry's Point of View—**

I ran as fast as I could until I reached the front of the forest. I took a deep breath before ducking my head and darting inside. I sulked around the area for a good three minutes until I spotted a dark brown haired girl who's back was pressed against a tree. She had her phone plastered in her hand and was crying as she was watching a video. I heard my own voice say, "I've got to go after her."

A friend must have recorded me and sent it to her. She still didn't know of my presence so I cleared my throat. She stood up, abruptly as she was taken aback. When her eyes met mine, she gave me a blank expression like she didn't know what to say. She probably didn't, either and I didn't blame her. I jammed my hands in my packets, and looked down at the ground.

I could only imagine what was going through her head right now.

Because I didn't know what to say, either.

**-Annabel's Point of View-**

What the hell was going on? No one was telling me. When I had teased Evie that her boyfriend was Harry Styles, I wasn't being serious.

But as it turns out, she was.

When Harry Styles made that little announcement on stage, everything changed. The crowd actually went dead silent and everything turned serious. It was like, real intense. Even the spotlight on stage dimmed. Oh God. Evie had left but she needed to hear this! I whipped out my cell and recorded him. I was determined to make Evie see this. With no hesitation, I sent it to her wondering where the hell she was anyway. Even though I knew absolutely nothing about their relationship, I knew I saw Evie so much happier the last couple of days. Their relationship, or friendship . . . whatever it was, was worth salvaging and was way too precious to break up. Besides, that giant hickey on her neck surely showed that he was a keeper, I mean that was _no _bruise.

Plus, it was Harry Styles . . .

"Um, what's going on?" Poor, poor Reyna. First time at a One Direction concert and this happens. Typical. Sad though. She didn't get to witness the true 1Derfulness (hehe, see what I did there?) of a 1D concert. I sighed.

"You know my friend, Evie?"

Her eyes widened. "Yeah, we were just talking a few minutes ago! Is she . . . uh, like, involved in this whole thing?" She gestured her hands to the stage, referring to what just happened with Harry. I nodded.

"Yeah. It's really complicated . . . " I trailed off. I didn't really understand it, myself.

"She didn't really seem to know much about these guys but I guess . . . " She looked down at the ground and clacked her feet together. She was wearing navy blue Toms, or as I liked to call them, Tomlinsons. Heh.

"No, see she didn't." I turned so that I was totally facing her. Nothing much appeared to be happening on stage, the rest of the boys were just whispering nonchalantly to each other and had their mics turned off so that we couldn't hear. Rude.

I explained everything I knew about this craziness to Reyna. From the whole big breakup blowout on Valentine's Day to what I _think _happened yesterday when I went to grab my Zayn poster, Reyna was completely informed.

"Wow that's rough," was all she managed to say. I just nodded in response. "Well, what's happening now?"

"I don't know, Evie hasn't texted me back since I sent her the video, like . . ." I looked down at my iMessage, "twenty minutes ago!" I exclaimed. I was shocked. How long were they going to be able to keep on stalling? Is the concert going to be cancelled? Will there be another one? Are we going to get a refund?

"Twenty minutes ago? Jeez, this is such a rip off!" She pouted. I felt bad for her. She didn't even really want to be here in the first place and now this was happening. We were all just waiting around, hopelessly and the boys were trying their best to make this way less awkward than it already was.

I pressed the home button on my phone and went to 'My Music.' I opened up my playlist titled "ONE DIRECTION'S ON REPLAY~THEY'RE ON REPLAY," and inserted my earphones in the slot. I shoved the ear-buds into Reyna's ears and told her to just listen. I played _Tell Me a Lie. _It seemed like a pretty pissed off song which really fit the mood right now, so I figured it was appropriate.

I just watched and patiently waited for Reyna to become a Directioner.

* * *

**-Evie's Point of View-**

He had the audacity to follow me. I wanted to be nowhere near him, especially after watching that whole speech. It seemed so phony I couldn't stand it. He didn't care about me, obviously. I don't really know what I was to him but a girlfriend was not one of them. Maybe I wanted it before, and I know I did yesterday, but now? No.

Never.

I stood up and caught his gaze. He then looked down at the grass and maneuvered his foot around some weeds, shyly. Now was no time to play shy. I wasn't sure whether I should run away from here too or not. But I had to ask the question that I've been dying to know the answer to.

"Were you ever going to tell me?"

"I thought about it every day." He answered quickly.

I couldn't tell if he was lying or not… so I continued. "Really? When were you _planning _on telling me then?" I tried to stay calm and not raise my voice higher than it needed to be.

"I tried telling you the day we met. And then when that didn't work out, I tried telling you the day after that at your house before we went to Starbucks."

"Wait . . . " I trailed off, thinking. That's why he looked so pale and strange. He probably thought he was going to get mobbed and recognized at the place. Everything was starting to make sense now.

_He probably climbed that tree so that no one would see him. That's why he never wanted to go out anywhere. That man who was peeping at us through a bush by my neighbourhood was probably a paparazzi. _

"Why did you go to such extremes to make sure that I never found this out?"

He sighed. He was silent for a minute, thinking things over I assume. He walked closer to me, not taking his eyes off of the weeding in the forest. "Because I wanted someone to know me as me and not Harry Styles from One Direction." Tendrils of his perfectly curled hair fell in front of his face.

"But that's who you are." I threw back at him. I was still pissed to the extreme.

"That's a part of who I am, not all of me." His head shot up as he looked me in the eyes. I couldn't do this now, just looking at his face was making me well up with anger so I just aimed my gaze back at the ground. In that brief moment that I did catch his glimpse though, I couldn't help but notice his eyes were wetter than usual. He can't possibly be beginning to cry.

Could he?

No. I refused to look. And I had nothing left to say either, but to my surprise he spoke again. "You could get to know the rest of me though." His voice had hints of warm invitation, playfulness and shakiness.

I wasn't having any of it. "I know," I assured him and then continued arrogantly, "I'm just not so sure that I want to."

* * *

**Whoa Evie harsh much? Gosh. What will happen with their relationship! ):**

**Well whoo for many multiple point of views! Haha I hope you enjoy this chapter and view, comment/review and all that amazing good stuff.**

**Also, Reyna has a secret :o WHAT IS SHE HIDING?**

**I don't know, you guys gotta wait and see hehe.**


	9. Just Friends or More Than This?

**I'll Be Your Reason to be My Love**

_**Chapter Nine:**_

_**Just Friends or More Than This?**_

_**February 20**__**th**__**, 2011**_

**-Reyna's Point of View-**

Annabel, I think that was the blonde's name, was trying to turn me into a 'Directioner.' She was doing everything in her power to convince me that they were all amazing in their own way and were "oh my God, seriously, the best things ever!" the more I got to know her, the more I started to realize that she was definitely the type of girl that I would normally steer clear of. But she was significantly less annoying which probably was the thing that was making me stay. She had character and I was honoured by the fact that she was trying so hard for us to be friends when we just met. Besides, I really liked her friend Evie . . . though something weird was going on right now . . . maybe we could even all hang out sometime.

"Oh, and my personal favourite, One Thing! Harry's voice is that of a pure sex GOD here!" Annabel was clearly still set on turning me to the fandom of the '1D family.'

But what she didn't know was that I used to be a member.

I used to be what I guess you could call a Directioner, and I actually knew every single lyric to all these songs. I was there in the recording studio with them, after all. But all of these wonderful memories were so long ago . . .

Back when I dated Liam Payne.

Actually, 'dated' isn't the right word I'm using. We were more like soul mates and inseparable. We did everything together ever since we met on the X Factor. I was one of the contestants but I hadn't made it through to the judge's houses. That didn't break us apart, though. After I had been rejected at the X Factor, Liam was actually the one that got me singing again. It was probably my favourite thing to do, now that I think about it. Just laying around, throwing song lyrics back and forth and thinking up melodies with him.

But, ever since Simon harshly criticized my voice in that one song _Rolling in the Deep._ I couldn't hit that super high note and I'll never forget the words he spoke to me that day.

"_What the bloody hell was that? You used to be good, but what happened? That was absolutely the worst I have ever heard. You've ruined the name Adele."_

I cringed, it was still so new in my mind. If it wasn't for Liam, I would have never had the courage to start singing again. I suppose I should thank him for that. I owe any success I've gotten to him. Especially since I just auditioned to be put on a record deal with the new hot music producers, I was still awaiting a response. I really wanted to tell him, as if that would mend all the broken pieces in our now complicated relationship. To be in his arms, feeling his warm embrace around me as we would belt out the silliest lyrics together, one more time…I would honestly give anything. The way that he was so endearing and sweet and funny all at the same time . . .

But those days were long gone.

Now he was dating someone else, at least that's what I heard from all of these damn tabloids and that they were happy. Whatever. No one needed to know about my days with Liam Payne, not now, not ever.

No one. Never.

**-Evie's Point of View—**

"You don't want to get to know me?"

His eyes were sympathetic but I still couldn't help seeing past that and finding the cold in them. And behind that pity look on his face, believe me his eyes were ice cold. More like freezing. "Evie . . . I know I messed up bad, yeah? But can I have a second chance?"

I wanted to give him one. I really did. But I don't know what I saw in a future together with him. If there even was one. But more importantly, did I want there to be? Maybe. "How do I know you won't lie to me again?"

"You're going to have to trust me." His face was dead serious now, but I just didn't know if I could. Trust him, that is.

"I don't know if I can," I said truthfully.

His face dropped ten stories and in the heart of my soul I felt remorse when I could hear the angry cries of girls from the arena erupt. He had to get back up there and I was keeping him. This was a lot of weight on my shoulders. I watched him as he turned his head to the stadium and then back at me. His emerald eyes flashed in anxiety as he licked his lips quickly. "C'mon," he coaxed. His curls lifted from his forehead in the gusts of wind. It was quite the movie scene.

When I still neglected to respond, he even dared to begin to reach for my hands. I didn't stop him, but the jingle of my phone did. Someone was texting me. Had I been saved from this awkwardness? I unlocked my phone to see that the number wasn't a person saved in my contact list. But, I'd know that number anywhere.

It was Derek. This ought to be good.

My finger lingered over the 'open' button but I resisted my urge and shoved my phone into my back pocket, not taking my eyes off of Harry. I suddenly knew what I wanted. I walked up closer to him, my anger pushed down my throat and starting to wear off sullenly. I gave him innocent eyes as I neared close to him so that our bodies were only inches apart. I looked up to him to find that he was looking back down at me, his face a little expressionless. I guess mine looked somewhat inviting as Harry was leaning into me gradually with every passing second. I knew where he was headed for as his eyes slowly began to close. Just before his lips touched mine, I whispered quietly, "Can we just be friends?"

He stopped in his movements. His eyelids were now wide open and studied me fiercely. He took a step back and closed his parted lips and swallowed. After staring at the ground for a few minutes, he looked back up, unaffected. "Why don't you and your friends stay after and come backstage later?"

"Okay," I smiled timidly. On any other occasion, I probably would have said no. But I knew how much Annabel loved these boys and I'm sure she would love an opportunity like this.

I was only doing this for Annabel.

**-Harry's Point of View-**

Evie and I walked a fair distance apart from each other back to the arena. Actually, we were uncomfortably far apart.

I can't believe this was happening. She just wanted to be friends. After all we had done and been through. . . over the course of six days, anyway. I didn't want this to be happening. I actually thought we could become something and I was really starting to fall for her. She was literally all I could think about lately and now I was getting rejected. To top it all off, I have to go finish a show who we probably just lost a bunch of fans over.

It was my entire fault.

Well, I guess things would go back the same with Louis at least. I was still so unbearably mad at him for making those subtle passes at Evie. He even mentioned how fit she was to Niall and I almost fell off my rocker. This never happens to us. We always speak every day and even though we still did, something was different and we were both distant. I suppose this foolishness is over now, though.

Finally the stroll of silent awkwardness came to an end, Evie drifted off into the crowd and I hoisted myself back onstage. I realized I had some explaining to do to the fans so I took my microphone back from a strident Liam, the expression on his face actually sending chills up my spine, and walked to the front of the stage.

"Right, ehm, I'm sorry about that. The show must go on, as they say!" I tried my best to fake a smile and act cheery for the good of the crowd.

Surprisingly the whole mob of people was silent until I heard one girl scream, "Did ya get your girl, Harry?"

I couldn't answer the question. It was almost as if she was mocking me, though I know she wasn't. I just opened and closed my mouth as my lips formed into a thin line. I turned to the band and clutched my microphone tighter in my hand.

* * *

Surprisingly, I got through the majority of the concert just fine.

Just my luck, our last song was More Than This.

"_I'm broken. Do you hear me? I'm blinded, 'cos you are everything I see. I'm dancin' alone…"_

As Liam's verse pursued, I felt my eyes well with tears. I never felt this strongly about someone before and it felt as if I were overcome with emotion. By the time my part came around, I was completely energized for this song. I found Evie in the crowd, of course, almost immediately.

"_When he opens his arms and holds you close tonight, it just won't feel right…"_I took a longer pause than I should have before continuing, almost shouting the lyrics out, "_'Cos I can love you more than this, yeah, can love you more than this."_ I knew that it wasn't the time where I repeated the lyric, but it came to me almost naturally. I finished my part, and let Niall and Louis sing their verses.

By the time it was Zayn's part at the bridge of the song, I couldn't handle it anymore. I couldn't stand Evie just sitting there in the middle of the crowd, my eyes plastered on her, and me not doing anything about it. She needed to know what I actually felt for her, and what a horrible screw-up mistake I made by not telling her about all of this way sooner.

Something overpowered me to continue after my part of the chorus, interjecting into Zayn's lines. My eyes never left Evie as I sang,

"_I've never had the words to say, but now I'm asking you to stay . . ." _something about that line sent a roller coaster of butterflies in my stomach and a spiral of chills up my spine. So much that it empowered me to jump off of the stage and take violent steps to that one spot in the crowd I wanted to be. At this point, Zayn stopped singing along and I could only imagine what the rest of the boys were thinking. But at this moment, I didn't care. My eyes were set and I finally reached her. I studied her expression. She was a bit star-struck and a little worried, from what I could tell. With my microphone in my right hand, I grasped for Evie's in my left and I continued,

"_For a little while, inside my arms. And as you close your eyes tonight, I pray that you will see the light . . . that's shining from the stars above . . . "_ I looked up for effect and then slowly repositioned my gaze to her. Thankfully, I'm pretty sure Liam picked up what was going on and continued his verse normally. Zayn then stepped in place of my own verse during the chorus after him. These boys were lifesavers.

Throughout the duration of the rest of the song, Evie and I's eyes were locked and I took it as a good sign that she didn't break apart our hand holding.

Maybe my luck was changing.

**-Evie's Point of View-**

What in hell was going on? Why was I enjoying this? Why did I like that Harry was singing directly to me in front of hundreds of girls that were watching us? What was this?

I liked him. Really, really liked him. And what he was doing right now was sweet. But that doesn't change the fact that he lied by omission.

"Harold, what do you think you're doing?"

"Making it up to you," he smirked slowly. This was no time for joking, but as my stare on him grew longer I realized that he wasn't. The other boys were finishing up the song in the background, lightly but I faintly heard it anymore. Everything was going in slow motion from this point on. Everyone was staring at us. Usually, I don't give in to peer pressure and get all nervous in front of a crowd, but tonight all the cards were on the table.

And it was my turn to place a bet.

**-Harry's Point of View-**

Things were going well, I thought. Evie's washed look of fear and anxiety was fading into a more distinguished expression with every waking second. Her mind was made up, I knew it.

I just hoped it was what I wanted to hear. I raised my eyebrows and lifted myself up on my tip toes and then back down again in my anticipation. She opened her mouth to speak and my stomach was a butterfly frenzy.

"I can love you more than this, too." She leaned in and kissed my lips gently and lasted for about five seconds, but believe me I didn't complain. A rush of fireworks waved through my body as I stood there, smiling like an idiot. It was reassuring to see that she was smiling back at me and I never wanted this moment to end.

Her eyes widened as she said, "Uh, I don't really know how these things work but . . . shouldn't you be back on stage closing the concert and ending with a wild hair flip or something?"

I laughed at her mocking of a cliché boy band concert, but she was right. I had a job to do! With that, I gave her a peck on the lips quickly as I saw a white light flash in our faces. I knew the media would be all over this but I didn't care. In this moment everything was perfect and nothing could ruin it.

I almost flew back onto the stage as I faced the crowd once again. I looked from side to side in heap for the boys to say something, but no one spoke. They didn't look at me either. Weird . . . I guess I was wrapping up the show tonight…alone.

"Ehm, thank you all for coming out tonight, we hope you had a really great time and sorry about all of the uh . . . situation we had earlier. And we love Doncaster!"

The crowd went wild and I turned to Louis, since we were in his hometown I figured he'd be overjoyed but I got about as much as expression from him as a brick. He was looking over the crowd, phased as if in a daydream. He ignored me when I tried to make a funny face at him. Okay, something was going on.

I had to find out what.

**-Evie's Point of View-**

I had to explain my state of life as I know it to Reyna. I went through the entirety of my week and what it consisted of and how this whole thing started. She seemed like a good listener, but anytime I mentioned hanging out with Harry she winced. I don't know why but it was all so peculiar. Maybe there was more to her than I thought . . . I finished my story rapidly. The crowds of teenaged girls fanned out and we stood there awkwardly as it became completely empty. Time to go backstage.

When I informed Annabel of all of this, she fainted. No, really. I had to spray vanilla scented perfume completely under her nose for her to awaken from her demented position on the dirty, linoleum floors. I even had to haul her back onto her feet. Reyna and I snapped a few pictures first, of course. The sight was just too golden.

Finally, the majority of us dragged ourselves backstage but one of us sprinted for her dear life. Typical Annabel. We eventually caught up to her to find her standing in front of a closed door, one hand steadily on the doorknob but not quite budging one bit. I gestured towards her, giving her a confused look.

"What are you doing? You just bolted over here—"

"Just open the damned door!" Reyna pretty much finished my sentence.

Annabel stared back at us, her face now ridden with fear. "You guys, I can't!"

Oh, she was in _this _mood. AKA, obsessive fangirl, anxiety shock attack mode.

I had enough of this, I wanted to get this awkwardness over. Now. I stomped in front of her and pulled the door open myself. And there before us stood five boys. One was eating a deep dish of pasta, scarfing it like he was never fed before. One was lying on the couch with a beanie covering most of his face, a bit of his black sideburns showed through as he tried to sleep. Another was conversing with the one called Louis (I recognised him from the other night). They all had on different, more casual looking clothes on too. Then there was Harry, sitting playing on his phone, the only one wearing the same attire from the performance. I noticed he was also kind of secluded and isolated from the other boys.

All of them too consumed in doing absolutely nothing, hadn't realized our presence so I cleared my throat. At that instant, they all looked up (except the boy sleeping on the couch) and stopped what they were doing. The boy talking to Louis was the first to speak and he kept his gaze on me.

"Are you the girl that's got Harry doing all these crazy things in the middle of performances?"

I couldn't tell if he was being serious or joking, so I stayed silent for a second, unsure of how to respond. Thankfully, Harry jumped in first. "Liam!" He went over and swatted him on the chest. I snorted quietly. "Are any of you going to be nice and introduce yourselves to Evie?"

I smiled faintly. This is going to be more awkward than I thought. "Hi," I said lightly.

The blonde boy who was eating was the first to speak. "I'm Niall! Nice to meet ya," he walked over to me and held out his hand. I shook it gently, noticing his strong Irish accent. "Who are your friends?" He looked next to me and I turned my head to the side. Reyna was standing shakily, as if frozen in place and I didn't bother to figure out what was wrong with her. Annabel of course stood there wide eyed, her jaw slightly dropped, hyperventilating.

"I'm Annabel!" she exclaimed and I was shocked. She actually found words and she said her name right. This was an improvement.

"Yeah, and this is Reyna," I said for her since she wasn't doing anything which was weird. She just was glued to one spot in the room, her eyes fascinated with the carpeting. Her head stayed down, but her eyes fluttered up to the boys, eyeing each of them for a millisecond. She flashed them a tiny smile for a minute and then resumed her previous position.

Well, all right then.

"This is Liam." The blonde boy, Niall, walked over to him and forced him to wave holding his arm and moving it up and down. Liam's gaze was fixed on Reyna and I could feel the tension flowing between the air. Something here was going on, but I didn't have much time to dwell on that. I had my own problems to think about at the moment.

As Niall walked from Liam over to the boy sleeping, he just gestured his hands to him and smirked, "Zayn." He then moved from him onto Louis. "And this is Louis."

"Hi, love. We met the other night, do'ya remember?" He smiled widely at me.

I giggled he was so subtle. "Yes, I do. Nice to see you again." I adverted his gaze and looked back down at the ground, thinking.

"YOU MET LOUIS TOMLINSON AND YOU DID NOT TELL ME?" There's the Annabel that I know.

"I'm sorry I didn't know he was '_the _Louis Tomlinson' then, Bell." I mocked her.

"Okay, okay, you're forgiven, whatever," she said in her 'I don't really care right now' voice as she walked past me straight up to Louis, "hey do you think you could sign my shirt?" She whipped out a black sharpie marker and I swear it was out of nowhere. I guess she always comes prepared.

"Sure thing, babe." He smiled at her and took the sharpie as she leaned forward towards him and he signed her striped tee on the stomach area. "Ooh, stripes. Louis likey!"

She giggled. Did he always say things like that . . . ? Nevertheless, it was cute I must admit. I shrugged as Annabel went around the room asking all the boys to sign her crap.

"HARRY, oh my God. Okay, I know you're dating my friend and all but I must say you were always my favourite member of the band, you were the first one I loved so would you mind signing—"

I sighed as I tuned her out. The room was very plain. Basic white walls, black leathered couch, bags surrounding the entirety of the area . . . it was quaint. My eyes drifted to Reyna who was still acting weird. I really wanted to ask her what was up but now didn't seem like the time at all so I just remained quiet. When Annabel was done bothering these poor boys, she ran back to me and whispered in my ear.

"Now that you're dating Harry it's been confirmed that Larry Stylinson isn't real . . . I can't believe I wasted so much time of my life on that!"

"What is Larry Stylinson?" What the bloody hell was she on about . . .

"Louis and Harry! They were dating but now you screwed it all up."

"They're GAY?" I said a little too loudly. Everyone in the room stared at me and I laughed nonchalantly, nervously. Harry had his hands shoved in his pockets and gave me a confused smile.

"No, no, no, no, no! Okay so you see . . . "

After like, ten minutes of Annabel explaining to me how it's so complicated that Louis and Harry are totally in a relationship but not really in a relationship to me, things started quieting down. I figured that it was now or never to do this.

I trotted over to Harry silently, who was consumed in a game on his phone. I flipped my hair over my shoulder so that it was out of my way. "Hey, uhm . . . do you wanna get out of here?"

He jumped up and shut off his phone. I now had his full attention. "Yes! Why do you think I stayed dressed nice?"

I smiled faintly. "Okay, let's go?"

He nodded back at me. I felt a pang of guilt wash over my body in that moment. We silently managed to creep out the door and then back out into the cold, fresh night air. His hand reached for mine and he laced our fingers together and smiled sweetly. I looked up at him. He had a nice giant gleam in his bright green eyes as he smiled down at me sincerely. This was going to be hard.

He grasped onto my hand tighter. "I'm so happy things were back to the way they were. I don't want this to ever happen again."

Scratch that, this was going to be _real _hard.

**Whoa guys a lot of things just went down so much drama!**

**Reyna's secret….yikes! Annabel fangirling, LOL and Evie and Harry whaat is Evie up to? **

**I don't know, you'll find out in chapter ten ;)**

**Review/Comment/Rate/Vote all that amazing good stuff pwease(: I really love hearing your thoughts! **

**Also I have two new fanfictions coming out shortly :)xx**


	10. When Harry Met Evie

**I'll Be Your Reason to be My Love**

_**Chapter Ten:**_

_**When Harry Met Evie **_

_**February 20**__**th**__**, 2011**_

**-Reyna's Point of View-**

_Maybe if I just stare at the ground and not say anything, I can make it out of here alive._

Or maybe not.

Liam just stood there directly across the room, his fixation on me not breaking. This was the specific definition of awkwardness. And as if it wasn't uncomfortable enough, Evie was leaving me alone with her psycho friend. Not that Annabel wasn't cool or whatever, but she wasn't going to help me get out of this situation. Nobody could now, I was alone and I had to get out of here. I wasn't ready for this even if it had been forever since we'd seen each other. I was just surprised that none of the other boys were saying anything. Obviously they knew who I was. Maybe for Annabel's sake they were keeping the tone neutral.

Or maybe Liam told them never to speak about it again.

Either way, what came up next was unavoidable. "I haven't seen you in forever." Liam started walking closer to me. Oh no. Did he not see that Annabel was in a flustered state at the moment and now she was probably going to faint again? That idiot.

"Wait _what?_" She furrowed her eyebrows together as she screeched, "You two?" She stuttered for a second and then whined, "Why does everyone have connections with One Direction except for me . . . ?"

I ignored her as Liam was now only five inches away from me. I didn't know how to go about this. We haven't spoken in a good year and a half and it almost felt as if I had forgotten what it was like to be with him. It all felt so new to me.

"How have you been?" Was he seriously daring enough to ask me a question like that?

I wanted to revert some of my anger towards him, but I decided against it. "Fine."

"Right, well surely you remember the rest of the boys."

Was he off his rocker? Of course I remembered the boys. We used to do everything together, there wasn't a day passing by when we didn't hang out and do absolutely nothing together. I most certainly don't know what Liam is up to, but whatever it is I don't like it at all. I have nothing to say to him and I'm not going to pretend we're all just good old friends when he's acting like we're nothing more than strangers. This was all so ridiculous. I can't just sit back and act like Louis and Harry weren't my best friends in the world, and I suppose still are, I can't just pretend Niall wasn't the only boy I could eat absolutely anything I wanted to in front of, can't just imagine that in my wildest dreams Zayn and I would do our hair together in the morning. And I definitely can't pretend like Liam was the only boy I ever really loved.

And possibly still do.

**-Annabel's Point of View-**

I couldn't even with this whole thing anymore. Evie and Harry were dating, there was definitely sexual tension between Reyna and Liam . . . meanwhile here I was standing like the obsessed fangirl in the middle of the room. I tried to enter my calm mode and keep my feelings to myself instead of expressing them to everyone in sight. It was so hard to do, especially since I was never the one to just keep quiet and go with the flow. But somehow I managed to do it.

"What the hell is this? There's _no _food left in the fridge." Niall turned to us in shock. "Guys, I'm going out to get Nando's, be back later!" He grabbed his jacket off of the chair he had been sitting on and stormed out the door in less than a minute. Oh how that boy loved to eat.

Reyna had been silent for the past twenty minutes. Or so it seemed like with all of us just standing around sheepishly. She shrugged, letting us know that she was alive since she appeared like the living dead right now. Liam gave her a sympathetic look and whispered something in her ear. She attempted what looked like a nod and then they barged out of the door suddenly too.

So now it was just Louis and I. And well, Zayn but he might as well be dead to the world too since he was in the middle of a deep sleep. I turned my head to Louis and then repositioned myself so that I was facing him. He smiled at me understandingly, and shoved his hands into the pockets of his tight tan pants. He was still wearing his red braces from the show.

He gestured towards me, "Well, looks like it's just you and me."

I giggled, "And Zayn." He was out like a light.

"Yeah, looks like the Bradford bad boy had a little too much fun tonight." Chills went through my spine. The way he referred to him as the Bradford Bad Boy . . .

"I bet. You guys were sensational tonight!" Oh God, the fangirl was coming back. _Deep breaths, Annabel._

"Thanks love, it means a lot to know that we're pleasing the fans." He smiled at me again, killing me slowly inside. It only disappointed me slightly that he saw me as another fan. But it was all right, I know my dream of being noticed as not only just a fan, but actually recognised by them was only just a dream and was aiming for the stars.

I looked down and smiled as I said, "You sure are."

"Your friends are delightful, by the way."

My head shot up as he started to make new conversation. Should I mention the weird thing with Reyna? By the happy look on his face, I decided I didn't want to start problems. "Thanks! They're keepers." Even though I had only known Reyna for like two hours . . . she seemed like a nice girl and we really hit it off, I thought. We could all be really great friends.

"Especially that Evie, she is a real character."

"Yeah, she's pretty great." _And I love her even more now for meeting you._ "Do you think Harry really likes her?"

He nodded slowly. "Only time will tell, I suppose."

I sighed. It really seemed like they genuinely liked each other. And if they were dating, that was great. Except it will take all of my willpower to not become the crazed, jealous bitch I always found myself becoming when one of these boys got a girlfriend. I knew it was really wrong but I couldn't help it my emotions always got the better of me and I hated it. I tried not to think about it and just focus on right now.

"Yeah."

**-Reyna's Point of View-**

As we exited the building, the brisk air hit me like knives. It was freezing tonight; I was shivering as goose bumps trickled up my spine and arms. Liam was only wearing a blue plaid shirt and didn't seem even half as cold as I was. His hands were shoved in his pockets and he walked slowly. I just wanted to know what he wanted to talk about. I cleared my throat.

"So . . ." I started. He was being so silent. I wanted to get this over with; I didn't know how to deal with anything at this point.

"Reyna, really; how have you been?" He stopped walking and stood in front of me, almost forcing me to look into his eyes.

"Oh, you mean ever since you suddenly stopped talking to me? I've been just marvelous," I said sarcastically, expressionless.

"Reyna, please. I know we both made a mess of things with us . . . I honestly don't know what happened between us."

"Didn't we both agree to break it off? Because the fame and everything was getting wild, and we were more of friends than lovers, or whatever?" I questioned. I wasn't even sure myself. All I know is that Liam and I both decided to remain friends after our mutual breakup, and we did. For a while, too. But then suddenly, he decided to stop talking to me. Whenever I texted or called him he never answered, and after tonight in the dressing room backstage I feel like he was pretending that I was just an acquaintance. It's funny how some people can mean so much to you and then they can just ignore your existence within an instant.

"We haven't talked in ages . . ." he trailed off. Was he blaming me for this?

"Yeah, whose fault is that?" I couldn't help but raise my voice a bit. Did he seriously think that I was the one who didn't make an effort to talk to him?

"I know. I'm sorry that we haven't talked in forever, we used to be such great . . . friends . . . " I could tell he didn't know what word to say to describe us. Frankly, I didn't know what word would describe us fully either. I felt like we'd known each other forever, like he was my best friend but then there were those other feelings . . . the ones I wish I still didn't have.

Not breaking my gaze on him, I blurted, "Why did you ignore me?"

"Ever since I started dating Danielle things have been a little, uh, crazy." He looked down at the sidewalk and then turned around. We resumed walking and he continued, "Whenever I texted or called you, she would get suspicious and I think she thought that . . ."

"We were dating?"

He laughed uneasily and then confessed, "Yeah . . . I think she blocked your number from my phone. I never got any of these texts or calls from you. She said that it was best for our relationship and the public that I didn't associate with you. Since a lot of people knew about our times on the X Factor it would probably look bad."

What a bitch. Why would Liam even result in dating her? I wouldn't even want to do a school project with a girl like that. If she can't be classified as being a jealous ditz, she was definitely stupid. "Why are you with a girl like that?" I couldn't resist asking. I know Liam and he would never date someone as spoiled like that.

"Management set us up together 'cause they thought it would be a good way to more publicize the band and Danielle's dancing as well." When he saw my shocked expression, he jumped up and elaborated, "But it's not anything like that, we actually began to like each other and she is a really nice person."

I turned my head as we walked to face him. He shot me a small smile which pursued me to ask, "But Liam, if no one was forcing you to . . . would you walk up to her and ask her to go out with you?"

His face turned a mixture of sullen and speculative. I could tell he was actually intently thinking. I awaited his response patiently and just focused on glancing at the sidewalk which now seemed ten times more fascinating. Finally, he responded which jolted me into amazement, "Not at all."

**-Evie's Point of View-**

He kept going on and on. About how sorry he was, about how he'll 'never do anything like this again' and about all the things we're going to do together. All the things he's going to do to make it up to me. He just doesn't know that I wasn't kidding when I said I just wanted to be friends.

Question: how does one nicely tell someone that they were only trying not to embarrass you in front of thousands of people?

I didn't want it to look like he was basically being dumped in the middle of a concert. Even though he hurt me, I wasn't that heartless. I felt bad for him. I didn't want to see his face drop in the middle of a giant crowd. I also didn't want to be known as the 'chick who rejected Harry Styles in front of everyone.' What did that even mean? I don't know. All I know is that the paparazzi would be all over it.

Suddenly, I couldn't take it anymore. The way he was describing everything so perfectly, the detail in his words of all the things he wants us to do together and it was almost too much for me to handle. But I had to do it. Even if there was hope for us in the future, we _had _to just be friends first. Even though he did keep this huge secret from me, as much as I wanted to, I couldn't hate him. He seemed like a nice guy, maybe he didn't have it all together but who did nowadays, he was making an effort and that was what counted, and to top it off, he wasn't ugly…

"Um, Harry?" I started, uneasily.

He swung our arms up back and forth ahead of us and then behind us in a repeated motion excitedly. "Yeah?" he turned to look at me and I had to look away. I'm not sure I could do this . . .

But I had to. I couldn't lead him on like this. Ugh but the way he stared at me with those green eyes and I forgot what I was doing.

I liked him, he liked me, why were things so complicated? Oh right. . . Because I was a normal girl, he was in a famous boy band, he lied to me, and to top it all off my ex-boyfriend wants to see me. Yeah, Derek had the nerve to say he wanted to 'talk things over lunch' next weekend. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to find out what he meant. But did that mean I wanted to get back together with him?

From the way Harry was smiling at me, certainly not. But I had to do this. I couldn't drag it out any longer.

"I-I think that we're better off as friends."

I did it. I finally spit I tout. The butterflies that had been building in my stomach were finally released. Harry closed his eyes and let go of my hand gently. His face was unreadable. "I was afraid of that." He lifted his hand to his temple and itched it unsteadily.

"Maybe we can try things again, later," I said reassuringly. I meant it too, I mean some of the best relationships spark from long term friendships. But . . . when you know, you just know right?

**-Harry's Point of View-**

In the back of my mind, I had this voice telling me that this was going to happen. I can't believe what a screw up I am. If I was just honest with her in the beginning, none of this would have ever happened. But at least she wanted to be friends. Better than nothing. I nodded at her offer. It's amazing what feelings you could develop for someone over the course of a week…

Though this friendship was going to be hard. I was always going to want more . . . it's exactly like that movie _When Harry Met Sally._ Total chick flick that move was and I insisted to my mum that the only reason I watched it when I was eleven years old was because I thought it was cool that the main character had the same name as me. Even though I'll never admit it to anyone, I liked the film a lot and I'll never forget it's message because it was so true.

Boys and girls can't be friends, in the end one is always going to end up liking the other more, and that was completely the case with Evie. But better friends than nothing, I guess.

"Okay, _friend_. Race me back to the building?"

She laughed. "Sure. I'm freezing my arse off anyway."

I swatted her on the arm and yelled, "Go!"

We both started running for our lives at that moment. She actually whizzed in front of me so I held my leg out in front of her, blocking her way. My swift action caused her to stumble as she then fell forward and dragged me down with her on the grass. I trampled over on top of her, my arms giving out as my stomach almost fell right on her back, but I saw something sturdy and grasped for it. Eventually, I did fall and topple over on top of her and I looked up. I saw what my hands were actually clutching. It was someone's ankles that my hands were firmly placed upon. Oh God.

"Oh, ehm, sorry sir. I didn't—LIAM?" I was baffled at him. What was he doing out here? And wait a minute…he was with a girl. I squinted up at her. Oh Lord. It was Reyna…

I never really knew all of the stuff that went on after the big blow up between Liam and Danielle over Reyna. I just didn't bother to pay much attention to it since it was a major downer to the rest of the band. We all hated to see the fights that went on between them, it was genuinely sad. After the massive misunderstanding they had with all the Liam and Reyna business, things weren't the same between him and Danielle. I didn't want to question what Liam and Reyna had been doing circulating the premises like that and I didn't want him to question me either since honestly I had no idea how I was going to explain this . . .

"Oh, uh Harry . . . what are you doing?" But of course he had to go there.

Suddenly, I loosened my grip on his legs and retracted my arms to the sides of Evie's body, hoisting myself up so that I could stand. I held out my hand to her and she took it, brushing herself off and stood up beside me. "It's not what it looks like!" I yelled.

"Yeah, no. We were just racing and then," Evie turned to me, "you tripped me!"

"Sore loser, I am." It was true. I loved winning, I can't deny it.

"Right. Well, ehm, do you want to walk back with us to the building?"

We all nodded and chimed our 'yes's in unison as we all started walking in the same direction. Evie trotted off to Reyna and I stuck firmly by Liam's side. I looked over to them and realized how much I had missed Reyna. Only a few short months ago I remember just sitting on the couch with her and watching films for half the day while Liam was at the gym. He'd later come and join us and it would be the best hangout in the world. She was someone I could laugh a lot with, since all the other boys usually went their separate ways on our days off, and she was a great company keeper.

What ever happened between Liam and Reyna that we all haven't spoken in what feels like forever?

Whenever the boys would try and talk to Liam about it, he always changed the subject or said he had more important things to do and it was all so distant. We all didn't like it one bit.

Coming out of my thought trance, I noticed that Liam was eyeing the girls sneakily and would occasionally glance away if one of them noticed. My guy senses were pounding in my brain. "Dude, do you still have feelings for her?"

"No, of course not; I'm with Danielle now. Reyna was just a fling a while ago. We're all over it," he said blatantly as he glanced from the girls to the ground. I shrugged. This obviously was not true but I knew Liam and he wouldn't go about admitting things for a while. Only time will tell, I guess. I had my own problems anyway . . .

I cleared my throat, swallowing down his bullshit. "Oh, all right."

"What about you and that other chick? Things looked pretty real before . . ."

"Her name's Evie," I snapped. "And nothing."

"Sure didn't seem like nothing on stage. . . "

Now he was starting to piss me off. If he wasn't going to talk about things with Danielle and Reyna, I certainly was not about to open up to him about my life. In fact, the only person I felt like I could talk to right now was Louis but with everything going on I felt like I had to keep this all to myself. I guess it was best not to talk about it.

"Yeah, well that's all in the past now." I left my sentence short. I didn't know what to make of this, or say for that matter.

"Oh, all right." He mocked me from before and ended with a small laugh.

I couldn't stand him right now. Thank God I saw someone coming towards us and from the way the distinguishable Irish accent hollered, "guys!" I knew it was Niall.

"Niall!" Liam ran over to him. Good riddance. I was left alone with the girls. I walked over closer to them.

"Reyna, how've you been?" I asked. She was still one of my best friends.

"Hazza!" she ran over to me and tackled me in a bear hug. Ugh, how I missed her hugs. She even still smelled the same, a mix of peppermint and cotton candy. It was the best. She let go of me and then clung to my side. "I've been all right, I guess . . . " she trailed off and then continued, "I missed you so much!"

From my peripheral vision, I could make out Evie eyeing us both suspiciously. If my vision serves me correctly, I'd say she was blushing. Whoa. Was she jealous . . . and was this a good thing? Hmm…

"Yeah, I missed you too, best friend." I winked at her and then looked back at Evie who was now staring intently at the sidewalk. Hmm again…

Reyna giggled and I heard Evie sigh. I turned my head and I saw her eyes look up from the sidewalk and to directly in front of her. Her eyes widened. "Oh, my God. . . "

**A/N: I am so sorry for dissing Danielle and referring to her as like some publicity crazed monster, I have absolutely nothing against her! I don't know her personally, but from what I've seen she's a lovely woman, this was all for the sake of my story, no hard feelings!**

**Also, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, took it down from their website I don't know what to think of it or do at the moment, so updates to come real soon. Keep in touch!**


	11. The Swag Master Shot Me Out of Doncaster

**I'll Be Your Reason to be My Love**

_**Chapter Eleven:**_  
_**The Swag Master Shot Me Out of Doncaster **_  
_**February 20th, 2011**_

**-Harry's Point of View-**

"Oh . . . my, God."  
Evie seemed to be frozen in place as her eyes were surely the widest I had ever seen them. I looked ahead of her to try and make out what she was focused on. Well, I couldn't see a bloody thing in this fog. I could only remotely make out a shadow of two figures standing next to each other. They were all the way back at the building, pressed against it I think. I left Evie and Reyna to run up closer to them, almost sprinting past Liam and Niall. As I got closer to the figures, the fog in the night cleared and I was almost shot out of the sky at what I was watching.

It was Annabel and Louis. Kissing.

Unsure if they saw me or not, I decided to keep my distance. I immediately turned around awkwardly in my tracks, lifting my hand to shake my hair, almost tripping over my own two feet. Thankfully I kept my balance and made minimal noise as my foot brushed against the road. I started walking back towards the girls quickly. As I was walking, I turned my head to the side and glanced back at them. Did they even notice us?

"Hey, Harold!" I heard Louis's high pitched voice. I guess he did. Shit.

I turned around yet again and faked a smile at him. His head was jerked to the side so that I could see him past Annabel's long blonde hair. "Oh, eh, hi." That was plain pathetic.

"We were just going out to a late dinner. Get the rest of the lads and let's go," he proposed. My eyes drooped down to where his hands were placed firmly on the sides of Annabel's waist. Slowly, I retracted my vision to Louis to look him in the eye. He must of knew that I noticed his actions and he quickly then shoved his hands into his back pockets.  
_Yeah, sure, Louis you were only snogging a girl two seconds ago but let's go eat and pretend like everything's fine. _

I wish I could say that. "Ehm, I don't know let me see what they think." I shifted my body, unsure of what to make of this situation. "Guys, do you wanna go grab a bite with Louis and Annabel?"

Niall, even though he was carrying a giant bag full of food from Nando's, jumped up and chimed, "Yeah I'm starvin'!" He handed me his massive bag and I took it with a look of confusion on my face. Right, then. Niall and Liam were headed up towards Louis and Annabel and I strolled in my own direction to Reyna and Evie.

"Guys come on we're going to eat!" I yelled unenthusiastically. Eating was the last thing on my mind considering all of my uneasiness from this night.

"What?" Evie asked.

"Yeah Louis and Annabel were just ehm…" I paused, and pointed to them dumbfounded, "…yeah so let's go!" I had no idea how to go about this. Do I say something? No probably not, I don't even know what exactly I saw…I should probably just shut up and let things…progress. I blinked quite a few more times than usual awaiting Evie's response.

"I think I'll pass, I'm not so hungry." Evie lifted her hand to brush it through her hair and I felt my heartbeat speed up. I sighed, this was going to be a long night.

"Neither am I, but…" I trailed off and she raised her head to look at me. There was silence and I tried not to break eye contact with her.

Eventually, it was, by Reyna's annoyed tone, "Ugh what's wrong with you people I'm starved!" she eyed us both skeptically and snatched the bag of Nando's from my grip. She dug her hand in and instantly began eating. Yeah, same old Reyna I remember. Always eating with Niall . . . what ever happened to those days? I wanted them back. But it would probably never happen…

Since Reyna was walking up to the others I decided to try and break the ice with Evie as I shoved my hands into my front pockets. "So."

"So. . . " she trailed off.

I turned back to face the others for a second and then turned back at her and came up with a suggestion. "Since everybody's going to…well wherever they're going to . . . want to come and keep Zayn company with me?" I thought it was a pretty good idea, I mean everyone seemed to forget about him and we obviously wouldn't want the poor boy to wake up and be all alone . . . plus it'd be a great opportunity to be alone with Evie.

I saw her look behind me over at the rest of everyone and then back to me. I gave her a sheepish smile, hoping to win her over with my incredible charm. I thought I was doing quite a pretty good job, actually. She gave me a small smile as she nodded slowly, "Sure!"

We both started walking towards the others to get back inside the dressing room, but then I remembered how I was so trying to avoid Louis for the time being so I unexpectedly grasped for her hand and pulled her in a completely different direction, remembering the side entrance to the building. It would be a longer walk but I didn't mind.

Evie shrieked and asked, "Where are we going?"

I laughed at her high-pitched girl scream and quickened my pace, "Just taking a little detour!"

"Oh God, it better not be another tree . . . "

"Not _that_ kind of detour!" I laughed at the memory. It seemed forever ago that we were having fun like that and it kind of made me sad to think about how carefree everything was then. I guess I should move on since I'm going to have to accept the past.

Clutching her hand tighter, I began to run even faster as I led her around the entranceway to the secret side door. Only the boys and I knew about this hidden entrance so that the fans wouldn't come out and attack us. Even though we loved the fans with all our hearts, things got hectic a lot of the time.

Finally, we made it to the door and I hauled it open with all my might since it was massively heavy. I held it open for Evie as she walked through the doorway and into the warm building. My nose burned at the new heated environment since I swear it was below zero outside and I was freezing. As the door shut it made a loud booming noise and we both jumped out of our skin. Was not expecting that…

I led her down the long hallway and then we turned right and stumbled into the dressing room. It wasn't large but it was roomy and had two bathrooms complete with a widespread living room with a telly and the occasional video games. I couldn't complain.

We took literally one step into the room and were greeted by Zayn's soft snoring. He was still passed out on the same spot we left him on the couch. He seemed awfully knackered, but surprisingly I had a bit of energy about me. I leaned over to check the time on the clock and it was nearly past eleven. I thought it was much later than that, but I guess not . . .

"And over here we have the hardest working member of the band," I gestured to Zayn and smiled cheekily. She laughed in response and I leaned down to pat Zayn's hair. If he was awake he probably would have slapped me across the face. I'm a risk taker.

"Does he always do this?" Evie laughed again and looked at Zayn who was snoring up a storm.

"Yeah, pretty much." I walked over to the chair that was next to the couch that Zayn was laying on and took a seat. Once I was comfortable, I noticed that Evie was still standing so I gestured for her to sit down on the empty chair that was placed across from mine. She took the hint and walked over slowly and then it seemed like she was unsure if she should sit or not but decided to anyway. Maybe she was a risk taker too . . . something we had in common maybe? I cleared my throat, "So…"

Evie crossed her legs and then leaned forward and said softly, "Are you sure we should stay in here, I mean I don't want to wake up uh . . . um . . . "

"Zayn?" I tried helping her out. I couldn't help but think it was slightly adorable that she forgot his name.

"Yeah, sorry." She laughed nervously to try and break the tension in the air. Oh God I hope I didn't sound irritated . . . that was the last thing I would want her to think of me.

But I was wondering, how did she not know of our band? I was pretty sure everyone in the UK had heard of us but I guess not. I was even surprised that I could keep this from her for so long even though I pretty much ruined our relationship. As much as I didn't want to ask, I felt so curious and it was taking over as I inquired, "How come you never heard of our band?"

"What?" She seemed taken aback from the question and I suddenly got a worried feeling in the pit of my stomach. Maybe I shouldn't have asked her that. I didn't want to come off all conceited sounding…another thing that I would want to be the last thing to have her think of me as.

I stuttered to find the right words. "That didn't come out right. I mean like—"

"How come I didn't recognize that it was you?" she tried.

"Er, yeah." I really didn't want to be having this conversation right now but I felt like I needed to, somehow.

"Well for one, I had no idea what your last name was." She did have a point there. I specifically left that little detail out when we met.

"But isn't your friend a fan of us?" I pressed on.

"Yeah, but I never really cared enough to go and look you guys up and all." She chuckled briefly, "Sorry!"

I saw her start to blush. Great, another thing to add to the list of situations that I've made awkward. "Don't worry about it, I wouldn't want you to become a crazed fan anyway. I'm tellin' ya, they are pretty obsessive." I added a playful tone to my voice to try and brighten the mood a bit.

"Oh, I'm sure they are." The hints of sarcasm trickling in her voice told me that she wasn't flustered by my complete awkwardness.

I thought of something and then chuckled before saying it, "Totally, they're all over me."

"I bet it's the curly hair." She squinted and shook her head in a joking manner.

"Oh yeah, no it definitely is." I bowed my head down and did my famous hair shake adding to its volume. I lifted my hand to shift it over to the side more so that it was out of my eyes and finally looked back up at Evie. I gave her my signature smile.

**-Evie's Point of View-**

_Jesus, God. Stop looking at me like that._

I wasn't sure how much more of this I could take. Was he trying to torture me or something? Did he know what he was doing? Lord, I bet he was doing this on purpose. The way he flipped that hair. . . it was overwhelming.

Okay, okay, Evie just don't look. _He's staring right at me…_ I need to get out of here. Thankfully, Zayn, the boy sleeping on the couch, starting stirring and tried rolling over on his side resulting into him falling onto the floor and waking up.

"Ah!" he exclaimed, rubbing his eyes. "What's happening…"

Harry laughed spontaneously for a second and then walked over to Zayn who was still sitting on the floor from where he fell. He whispered something in his ear and Zayn's eyes grew wide and shocked. "Everyone left?"

Harry chuckled again briefly and added, "No just kidding they all went to some dining place. St. Julien's I think Louis said."

Zayn looked confused for a second while he asked, "What, that place by the water?"

"Yeah, the one where Louis jumped in and then got yelled at by the manager last time we were here, remember?"

Louis sounded like a fun boy. He said he was turning twenty years old this year but I didn't believe it for a second. He had such a humourous way about him and he was hysterical from what I could tell. I would love to hang out with him.

"Oh yeah, the seafood place! What are we doing here, let's go," Zayn suggested as he got up, walked directly to the mirror placed on the side wall next to the T.V. He quickly pulled the beanie off of his head and shook his hair and styled it so that it had a messy way about it but in a good way. Now that I think about it, he made bed head definitely look good.

Harry looked to me and my stomach growled. Guess I was hungry after all. I nodded to him and we all walked out of the dressing room and into the cold night air together.

"Look who decided to join us!" Louis exclaimed once we all showed our faces at St. Julien's marina diner. Inside it was dimly lighted so that it had a somewhat romantic atmosphere to it. I don't know why they were still open; I mean it was nearly past 11:30 now. Nevertheless, they all decided to get one big booth with Annabel and Reyna in the middle, Liam next to Reyna, the blonde boy whose name I couldn't remember next to him and then Louis on the left side of Annabel. I chose to scoot my bum in next to Louis and told them all to move down and make room. Harry squeezed in next to me and Zayn decided to walk to the other side and took a seat next to the blonde boy.

I noticed Reyna was a little distanced from Liam and had a strange look on her face. I knew there was definitely something weird between them, but I didn't know what since I was pretty sure she hadn't known of One Direction like me. But I could be wrong . . . I'd definitely have to ask her about it later. She just seemed so . . . I don't even know . . . pained?

"Ooh, sleepy head is awake," another remark from Louis escaped and the crowd emerged in giggles. Zayn kept his head down and stayed quiet.

"So, what's good here?" I turned and asked him. I was actually quite starved now.

"Me!" he exclaimed sassily. Well, he was certainly feisty tonight. Unless he was like this on a regular basis, I didn't know. Regardless, I started laughing as I swatted his arm playfully. He was such a funny kid!

I heard Harry clear his throat and he tapped me on my upper arm twice, gently. "I heard the steak is to die for, here."

I nodded slowly, sounded good to me. Just about any type of food sounded good right now. Soon enough the waitress came out, took Zayn and I's orders and Harry just had a glass of water. By the time our food came around, I was beyond starving and started violently cutting my steak into little pieces before devouring it.

The group was consumed in an argument over if building snowmen was fun or childish. I inserted my opinion a few times, saying that it was totally awesome still building snowmen but it was hard since if you wanted to talk over them you would have to scream. And I was eating my steak so screaming wasn't exactly something I wanted to do. Meanwhile, Harry stayed completely silent, focused on his glass of water like it was a million dollars, occasionally looking up pretending like he was a part of this conversation. I looked over at him to make sure he was okay, but he was still staring intently at his water. I turned my head back to try and convince Liam that it's totally okay to still be building snowmen when Harry nudged me.

"Can I have a bite of that?" he was staring at my steak and pointed to it, a mysterious look on his face.

"Sure!" I pushed the dish a little closer to him and he picked up his fork on the napkin and began taking little squares of steak that I cut.

"Mmm, it's like—"

I instantly covered his mouth with my hand. "Harry Styles, if you make another Jesus-food comparison I'm going to get scissors and cut off all of your curls."

I felt his lips purse and he swallowed. I took my hand off his mouth and resumed eating.

Reyna burst out laughing and she stared straight at Harry. "Hazza, you still do that? To think you would have grown up by now!"

I choked. Wait what? Reyna knew Harry? I knew there was something strange going on with her.

But I probably would have never expected that.

**-Reyna's Point of View-**

I had gone into total laugh attack mode. Harry's obscene quips of comparing food to God-like things always cracked me up. I remember when Liam and I used to completely make fun of them but instantly end up dying of laughter.

Throughout the duration of the night, all of the boys had been only acknowledging my existence like I had just met them. I remember just seven months ago we were back here in this exact same restaurant, dining like six best friends. It was still the definition of awkward and I can't believe Harry was the only one not being a jackass about the situation. Wait a minute….

"_That was the greatest dinner I've had in like two years!" I blurted, still amazed by how spectacular the food here tasted. It was probably now my favourite place to eat._

"_Only the best for my girl," Liam said as he sneaked up behind me and laced his fingers with mine. He leaned down and gave me a quick kiss. I smiled. He was the best._

_I watched as Louis raced in front of us and jumped straight into the water surrounding the establishment. Harry came up next, chuckling like an idiot as he passed us and took off his shirt. He started undoing his belt buckle as well and was just about to take his pants off. I shielded my eyes and yelled, "Harry, I don't think this is a very good place to get naked!"_

"_Babe, this place is as good as any other." He pulled his pants down revealing his black Calvin Klein boxer shorts as he jumped and screamed just like Louis. Zayn and Niall jumped straight in after them. I looked to Liam. I knew he didn't like the idea since we were probably going to get kicked out of the restaurant but I couldn't help but wander to the edge of the water. _

_He gave me a look of question but I only took his hand and dragged him into the water with me. It was cold but it was a refreshing type of cold since it was over ninety degrees outside. We all started having massive buckets of fun and it was like we were already best friends. It had only been a little over a week since Liam was put into this band One Direction with these other four boys. We were all trying to do our best on the X Factor and we tried not to see it as a competition because it wasn't. _

_Liam and Niall got into some depth conversation about what food was the 'ultimate meal' at Nando's. I turned to Zayn and Louis who seemed to be gossiping about previous X Factor contestants. So I swam over to Harry who was all alone, swimming around. _

"_Hey curly, watchya doing?" His response was splashing me in the face. "Hey Styles that wasn't very nice!" _

"_I know," he smirked. "That's why it was fun."_

"_Well someone's being very mean today," I stated. _

"_It's okay Rey-Rey you know I love you." He gently splashed me again._

_I laughed. "Yeah, yeah I know. Hey, it's been exactly a week since 'One Direction.'" _

"_Exciting isn't it!" he exclaimed. I couldn't even believe what was happening myself. I was still a little iffy about the whole thing._

"_Yeah . . ."_

"_Hey, promise me that we will all stay best friends no matter what." He must have sensed my uneasiness but I liked the fact that he was going into all-sensitive mode. It was reassuring._

"_I promise." _

_And we meant it. _

That was probably one of the best days we've all had by far. Aside from Liam and I's awkwardness, everyone appeared to be enjoying themselves. Even I was enjoying myself! It was a surely fun night.

I glanced over to Harry since I just happened to have a thorough flashback of him, but it seemed he was stabbing the tablecloth with his fork staring blankly at it. Well he definitely wasn't having a fun time. I then looked over at Evie who was laughing at some hysterical punch line Louis just said. Harry looked up at them shyly and then back down, seeming to have an expressionless face.

Oh my God. Harry was jealous. And I knew that look…

I think he was _in love _with Evie.


	12. Louis Tomlinson Must Die

**I'll Be Your Reason to be My Love**

_**Chapter Twelve:**_

_**Louis Tomlinson Must Die**_

_**February 20**__**th**__**, 2011**_

**-Annabel's Point of View-**

Mother of God. Harry Styles is seated so close to me. I'll never admit it to anybody, but he was my favourite member of the band. I don't know, there was something about him that drove me crazy and made my heart skip ten extra beats whenever I heard his voice. I kept stealing glances at him from across the table to see what he was doing. He still hadn't budged from the last time I saw him, stabbing the table with a fork.

Geez, by the time he's done there's going to be a massive hole in the table.

I'd say it was definitely anger management worthy. I then glanced over to Evie and Louis who were laughing up a storm at something ridiculous probably. From what I could tell, Louis really liked Evie . . . Honestly, I had no idea who she liked. She was so mysterious about the whole thing actually. Ah well, I guess this finally confirmed that Larry Stylinson wasn't real. Harry looked up from his intent glare on the table. His eyes met mine and we shared eye contact for what seemed like a while, when it hit me.

Harry Styles was staring at me.

Oh, God, please don't make me look stupid. All right, now this was just getting plain awkward. Reyna, Liam, and Zayn were all consumed in their food, stopping idly to chat about random nonsense. Actually, I was still so confused about all of this. Reyna and Liam had . . . a thing going on?! What the hell happened to Danielle? What if the press found out about all of this?

Well, whatever. I wasn't going to say anything, obviously, but it all seemed so suspicious to me.

Evie and Louis looked like a couple. I didn't want to say anything about that either since you know, I thought Evie and _Harry _were an item. I don't know, I think this night just jacked everything up. I'd totally need to talk to her about it though, I think life is getting so much more interesting and drama filled now.

But seriously, Evie kept batting her eyelashes, flipping her hair, giggling hysterical at every little thing Louis said. It was actually vom-inducing.

I was still staring at Harry Styles. And he was still staring at me. He looked crushed and I honestly felt bad for him. I knew exactly what he felt like. I mean, hello, of course he really super liked Evie and here she was flirting with his _best friend _right in front of his face. Ugh, this was absolutely DISGUSTING. I wanted to stop it, but I'm not sure there would be a way that I could without losing a friend here. I'd need to talk to them all separately; since, I needed some answers here and was confused as hell.

_Just leave it all to Annabel. _

Since we still hadn't broken our gaze, I decided to speak to Harry first. I finally looked away from him and motioned to the back of the restaurants where the bathrooms were located so we could go talk. He took my hint and scooted silently out of the booth. Wow. Nobody even noticed. Now it was my turn to escape. But how? Evie and Louis were both hogging my way to squeeze out of the booth and if I asked them to move, somehow I don't think they would hear me.

You know what, screw it. I'm climbing over them. I mean, it'd be the only way they'd acknowledge anyone else's presence at the moment. I pulled my bum off of the seat and placed it on Louis' lap so that I could gesture my leg over his and Evie's so that I could take one big step and be out of this disaster. When I was finally free, I muttered a 'sorry' only to see that they completely ignored that whole escapade. Well, all right then.

I sauntered over to the bathrooms, and Harry was nowhere to be seen. Damn it! Even though I was trying not to think about it, I was so excited that I'd get to be having a serious, private conversation with the man and now that was never going to happen. I sighed, disappointed, and started making my way back to the unholy table.

Suddenly, I was stopped abruptly by a fierce grip on my forearm. I was instantly pulled back and into one of the doorways. What the hell!? I turned around and saw that it was Harry.

_Oh my God, HE JUST TOUCHED MY ARM. WHAT IS LIFE?_

Ahem, anyway.

He had the saddest look on his face as he stared into my eyes. It almost took me a minute to realize that we were in the men's room . . .

"Uh, Harry why are we in the men's room?"

He sighed, almost annoyed at my question, "Like anyone else is going to walk in here."

"Isn't my presence in here, like, illegal . . . ?" How was I supposed to go about this? I've never stepped foot in the boys' bathroom my entire life. Well, this certainly was a new experience.

He looked flustered at my interrogating, making me feel worse as he said, "I'm sorry I just . . . I had to get out of there."

"I know what you mean it was practically a flirt fest over there." I looked disgusted and I hope I sounded as bitchy as I was feeling right now. I can't believe Evie; this isn't like her at all. What's wrong with her?!

Harry continued staring at the ground and cleared his throat uneasily. This was probably really uncomfortable. "This is all of my fault though."

"What exactly uh, happened?" Before I could take sides or even really do anything to analyze this whole awkward situation, I needed to know everything. Not to mention that knowing Evie she'd probably leave out a bunch of stuff. I needed both sides of the story.

Harry painfully looked up from the ground at me and then explained _everything. _From how he met her that day that Derek decided to be a bipolar asshole to yesterday when I left Evie's house to get my poster of Zayn. It all started making sense now and all seemed like a typical Evie. She always fell for people way to fast. Even if it was Harry Styles we were talking about. She did the same thing with Derek and look where that went . . . I don't know why Jake even set them up in the first place but whatever.

"And here we are," Harry finished. I just stood there in amazement.

A whole week and I never knew it was _Harry Styles. _Actually, I knew it all along, subconsciously…kind of . . . even if I was only joking . . . yeah. "Just give it time, I'm sure if you guys both really like each other, she'll forgive you. I mean, she should anyway. It's not like you killed her cousin or something."

"I guess but I feel horrible that I kept this from her. I knew I shouldn't have." He looked at the ground again and shook his head.

"Okay hot pants, chill it. You guys have known each other for, like, a week. It's understandable why you didn't tell her in _that _amount of time."

"Yeah, I was going to tell her . . . eventually." He finally started to have hope in those huge, green eyes of his. Yes, I, Annabel Edison, have successfully reassured Harry Styles.

"Exactly, and you need to tell her that. She should understand. And if she doesn't want to _date _you right now, you'll still be friends! And I'm sure you could try again later."

"But look at the way she's been talking to Louis. She never looked at me like. . . like _that._" Okay, honestly, he was breaking my heart right now.

"It didn't seem that way last week." I tried to relieve him but it was kind of hard to do since he did have a point. I didn't know what was up with her. Maybe it's all an act and she actually does want to date Harry again but she's trying to hide her feelings or something. Again I question why this world has to be so complicated.

"What?" Harry's face lit up a little bit.

"Yeah, seriously, last week she was probably the happiest I've seen her in such a long while. It was really nice to see a gigantic smile on her face every day." I stared intently into his eyes. I laughed a little and then continued, "I'm sure that must have been the time you were the reason for that smile."

He then smiled, catching my reference to _Tell Me a Lie. _"Yeah. I can't complain though. At least we're friends, it could be worse than that."

"But dude, even I'm getting pissed off at her now."

"Her and Louis are getting on really well . . ."

"Yeah and by the end of the night they'll probably be getting _it _on if you don't do something." That was a little mean, but seriously nothing was giving him the push in the right direction. One direction . . . excuse that cheesiness. Thankfully, I could tell that Harry took my comment into great mind by the way he was staring distinctively at the ground.

"You're right . . ." he made his way for the door and I quickly followed since I was starting to feel very uncomfortable in there.

Just as I was about to bolt out of there, he turned around and made me bump into his chest. OW. That hurt my head like a motherfu—wait a minute, his chest was hard. Ugh that means he's built, _Jesus take the wheel._

Looking down at me he said in a new tone, "But I mean it's not like they would notice us . . ."

It sounded like there was more to that so I prompted him by pressing on, "Yeah . . . true."

"So I think we should do something big so that they notice us."

That sounded reasonable so I nodded in response. "Like what?"

He furrowed his eyebrows, pondering a minute looking around the empty bathroom. He placed a hand upon his chin and led it up to his lips as he stood there deep in thought. After a second, he took it away abruptly, as if he wasn't even thinking in the first place and before I knew it, his hands were both cupped around my face. "Like this," he said as he pressed his lips against mine.

Wait what, excuse me, what?! Is this real life or like WHAT?!

I wanted to pull away and ask him what the hell he was doing but I mean . . . it was just a harmless kiss, only something I've ever dreamed about since July 23rd at 8:22 P.M. So initially, instead of listening to my right mind I decided to just go with it. Even though it was most likely wrong. But hey, if you were in my position, admit it, YOU ALL WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME THING.

He pulled away then, it was a medium-long kiss and it took everything inside of me not to freak out, cry, or faint. Or possibly die from the rate of my heartbeat. I really should take my blood pressure right now. I looked up to check his facial expression and he licked his lips, looked down at my lips and then back up at my eyes. He reached out to gently touch my arm and caressed it a bit.

_Dear sweet, sweet, Lord, give me strength. _

"So will you do it?" he jumped up a bit reminding me of a child, and then stood in place silently awaiting my response. If it meant I got to kiss him again while also potentially fixing a relationship, granting not only my best friend happiness but Harry Styles as well I was definitely all for it.

I nodded haughtily. I didn't need explanation, I knew what he was going to do, or try to do. Make Evie and Louis notice us, making them jealous and pretty much forcing me to talk to her and same with Harry.

"Ah thank you!" he smiled widely and engulfed me in a hug.

"No problemo Styles, now can we please get out of here it's really creepy being in the men's."

He laughed, "Yeah let's go. By the way, since you're helping me out so much I could probably set you up with Louis." He winked at me.

"Louis?"

"Yeah I saw you guys snogging behind the building before, you sneaky girl."

_What? _Louis and I _snogging? _Okay, I don't think so. Was he seeing things or something? "Wait what? No we weren't." I laughed it off. This was a little awkward.

"Yes you were, I saw you guys."

"We were standing next to each other but we weren't kissing. I can tell you that right now."

Harry must have seen him whispering to me. He told me a secret and I promised him that I wouldn't tell anybody but it was going to be really hard. But I wasn't going to say anything since I didn't want to jack things up in any relationships going on here. But I _was _going to have to say something soon, it was kind of a really big deal . . .

"Then what were you doing?" Well, someone was being extra inquisitive tonight.

"Just talking." I shrugged it off. "Look it's fine you don't have to do anything. Friend helping out a friend right?" For a little while there it felt like I was conversing with a regular person. Then, I just had a realization of who exactly I was talking to and added limply, "I mean if you want to be friends of course. . . "

"Of course we're friends! I think you're awesome and especially awesomer for doing this for me." I laughed at his use of non-words. But that did warm my heart of course. I mean I was being dubbed awesome by Harry Styles. I nodded and shoved a piece of hair behind my ear. "Give me your hand."

"What, why?" I questioned him.

"Just give it to me!" I did as he said and out of nowhere he pulled out a pen and started writing something on my palm. I winced since it tickled, and then he finished and let go of my hand. I looked down at it to see it was a phone number and then I smiled back up at him. "Call me sometime, babe!"

I smiled. "I will. Now let's go please I'm dying to get out of here."

He laughed and then opened the door and we made our way out to the fire like pit of Hell, also known as the front of the restaurant. Harry impulsively grabbed my hand and interlocked our fingers. When I looked up at him he said, "For more effect." I nodded and smiled.

Even if it was just pretending, this was seriously the best moment of my life. We strutted out to where everyone was seated and sat down ourselves, our hands still holding. Niall and Zayn nodded their heads over to us signaling a 'hello.' I turned my head to face Harry and was immediately greeted by his soft lips against mine. We just stayed there in place for a while until we quickly broke apart to find that finally they all noticed us. Even Evie and Louis.

Louis coughed awkwardly, Niall sat there with his fork to his mouth, not moving, his mouth wide open, Zayn had an unreadable yet still expressionless face on, Reyna and Liam both stared at us, more like gaped at us with extremely wide eyes, worried looks upon both of their faces. And then there was Evie. She was giving us somewhat of a death glare but trying to be as subtle as possible about it but I saw through her wall. She was hurting. I'm not sure if Harry saw it but I did. She always tried to hide her feelings, but I saw right past them. I turned back to Harry to see if he was going to say anything because I was a little speechless.

When the silence between the table wasn't ending, Louis cleared his throat. "So Haz, find yourself a new girlfriend?" He had a joking smile on his face and I could tell he was trying to start up a bit of antics.

"Evie can I talk to you?" I said before anybody else could respond. For a second she looked a little petrified, but she must have caught herself since she then returned to her expressionless look but I saw the glossiness in her eyes. She nodded and stood up and we both made our way out of the booth.

We walked to the back and I shook her shoulders abruptly to force her to look at me through her hazy eyes. "What is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me, what's wrong with _you?!"_ She spit back at me.

"A lot. But, that's beside the point. Why are you flirting with Louis?" I decided to take a direct approach.

"_Flirting?_ Bell, please."

"Well if you don't like him then I really think you should stop sending him mixed signals," I said a little quieter.

"What now I can't even talk to guys?" Ugh she was getting all defensive.

"Well, like, I don't think you should go like this every ten freaking seconds." I paused in between words to flip my hair mockingly at her.

"I was not doing that! God what's your problem, even if I was flirting with him at least I didn't kiss him."

I rolled my eyes. If she only knew. "Dude, you were so focused on him that was the only way you would actually notice us."

She looked at me confused. "So you guys aren't an item now?"

"I wish! Evie, are you dense? He likes _you._ A lot. And I really think you should give him a second chance."

"Bell . . ." she sighed, "this whole thing happened a couple of hours ago."

She started to continue but I cut her off, "False, it is past midnight. It happened yesterday."

"It's still a lot to take in. I just, I need time." She looked around the crowded corner we secluded ourselves in. "And space." She tried to push past me but I stepped in front of her again so that she couldn't.

"Kay, what aren't you telling me?" I knew she was hiding something. She always avoided the conversation when she was.

"What? Nothing." She shifted her eyes. Yeah, uh-huh Evie real subtle.

"Seriously tell me."

She sighed heavily and then gave in. "Derek wants to have lunch soon."

I gave her a death glare. "You're passing up Harry Styles to go out with that douchebag again?"

"No of course not, I just want to see what he has to say. We've dated for over a year Annabel; feelings don't just magically go away you know."

"Okay whatever yes I know, I'm sorry. But we're all still friends right?"

"Yes, yes of course." She nodded quickly.

"Will you at least consider giving him a second chance? Evie I'm serious, he really, _really _likes you." You know how it feels when you're watching your favourite TV show and there's two main characters who are so perfect for each other it's like a match made in Heaven and everyone can see that they need to be together except for them?

That was what was happening in real life. Right now.

"I'll think about it. I will." She meant it, I could tell by the serious tone in her voice. I just hope she'll come to her senses really soon and act on it.

We started to walk back to the group but I stopped her again. I had another matter to discuss. "Are Reyna and Liam dating?"

"Ugh, Annabel you can't just go around asking people if they're dating."

I laughed at her reference to _Mean Girls. _Best film ever, if you haven't seen it go out and rent it now since you don't deserve to take another breath without seeing this movie.

"No, seriously what's the deal?" I asked when my laughing fit ended.

"I have no idea. They seem to be friendly with each other, I think that they knew each other well a long time ago or something. I don't know, I got her cell number so we can ask her about it sometime."

I shrugged. "Okay, cool. Now go tell Harry you'll think about giving him a second chance and then let's get out of here. I'm as tired as fuc—"

"Annabel!"

"Fudge cakes." Evie was such a child sometimes, she hated swearing. And then there's me. What a wonderful pair we make. When we got back out to the restaurant area, I nudged her towards Harry and watched from behind a counter. They both smiled sincerely, and I hopefully suspected that was a good sign. Evie walked back to me with her coat in her arms and we walked over to the door. We both waved back at everyone, claiming that we will talk soon and definitely keep in touch.

We both started walking back to the arena where our car was parked. It was only a few blocks away, so it wasn't too bad you know, besides the fact it was freezing cold outside. A few minutes into our silent walk, I heard that Evie was receiving a text message. I hoisted myself onto my tip-toes and looked over her shoulder and saw that it was from Harry.

She never did tell me what it said, but from the cackling sound of her giggling laughter, I could tell it was something cheeky.


	13. I'm Broken, Do You Hear Me?

**I'll Be Your Reason to be My Love**

_**Chapter Thirteen:**_

_**I'm Broken, Do You Hear Me?**_

_**February 20**__**th**__**, 2011**_

**-Louis's Point of View—**

"Do you guys want to go, I'm tired?"

Zayn was practically falling asleep on the table and I was actually feeling a bit knackered as well. I agreed that we should go so everyone simultaneously stood up and collected their coats. I had an uneasy feeling in my stomach as I looked to Harry who had a grin on his face. He was staring at his mobile so I assumed he was texting someone. I stared at him for a bit and then he turned his head up looking at me, the same grin still on his face.

I had an idea of who he was texting now and it sunk my heart a bit. I liked Evie a lot. But I knew I could never do that. Harry obviously had a huge thing for her and that would just be plain wrong. But I couldn't help but feel this way. And from the end of tonight, I thought she may have felt the same way too. But not after she pushed that she would give Harry another chance. I knew I had to let it go then. I could see it in both of their eyes that they were meant to be. And I certainly didn't want to be the one to stand in the way of that. I just hated myself for developing this massive crush on her.

She was smart, she had a good sense of humour, she loved to eat, she was cute, the way how she didn't want anybody to see her as a weak person, and was generally fun to be around. Totally my type of girl. But Harry had her first and that was only fair. I'd have to just see her as one of the guys.

I sighed as I grabbed my jacket and threw it over my shoulders. I walked out of the booth over to Harry who was intently focused on his phone. I messed up his hair as Reyna walked past us. I haven't seen Reyna in forever, I almost forgot what she was like. But after tonight I found that she was still the same bubbly, sarcastic yet enlightening Reyna. Good to see that some people never change.

Not gonna lie though, I was completely rooting for her and Liam to get back together. I think Danielle is just bad for Liam. She's really different from him. And yeah, opposites attract and all that but not in this way. Liam was responsible and a tad bit innocent but I saw Danielle as a reckless, attention grabber but that was just me…

Anyway, Liam and Reyna seemed to be reconnecting a bit which was good. But I mean, if I were Reyna I'd be a little pissed. That was another thing I didn't like about Danielle. How this whole thing started with publicity. But they seemed to be getting along.

Zayn was falling asleep and Niall had him on his shoulder. I laughed over at them since Niall couldn't contain Zayn's weight at the moment so he was kind of stumbling over. My thoughts were interrupted by Harry laughing hysterical. Being my nosy self, I nudged Harry's elbow.

"Hey hot pants, what's so funny?"

He smiled at me and said, "Evie just told me a joke."

I pressed on, "Ooh what was it?" I loved jokes, actually, so it seemed like a reasonable question. Plus I kind of wanted to know what they were talking about . . .

After I asked, Harry cracked up again but caught his breath enough to pause and say, "Penis!" and then resumed laughing.

I just wanted this day to end.

**-Evie's Point of View—**

Teardrops fell delicately from my eyes to the ground. I was laughing so hard I was crying. Annabel looked at me like I was a nut, but I mean like she didn't already know that. She had no idea what I was talking about and I'm pretty sure that if I did tell her she would have a heart attack or something. So I just kept it to myself but it was rather hard without wetting myself.

"I cannot wait to get to the hotel I am knackered!" Annabel exclaimed as she opened the door to the car.

I got in on the passenger seat side and fastened my seatbelt. "Me too." She started the engine and I immediately started texting Harry back.

_**[E] Ugh now I really wanna play the penis game . . . **_

I got a reply in less than a minute:

_**[H] Me too! **_

_**[E] But how, I mean its me and Annabel in the car. No fun :(**_

_**[H] Hahahahaaa I'm with the rest of the boys and Reyna I GET TO HAVE MORE FUN THAN YOUU.**_

I groaned out loud.

_**[E] Ooh, now you're just rubbing it in!**_

_**[H] HA! Ok, ok, I'm sorry. Hey, call me and we can play :D**_

I contemplated it for a minute, and then thought 'why not?' Not like I had anything to do, besides you have to be a little crazy sometimes especially after a day like this one. I clicked his contact and pressed call. I knew that Annabel was shooting me a confused look, but I ignored it and cleared my throat.

"Ready for the most fun you'll have _allll _night?" he answered.

"Oh, totally," I replied sarcastically, although he was probably right. It has been a very long day.

"Okay, I'll start." He paused and then whispered, "Penis."

I said then louder, but very lightly, "Penis."

It continued like that until we were screaming it. Annabel was done with me, she blasted her headphones in her ears so loud that I could actually hear it. Harry had put me on speaker so I heard the shrieks from all the boys and even Reyna. I could tell that they were all crammed into a tiny space in the car from the way that everyone was screaming and yelling at each other to move over. I think around ten minutes went by and we were still playing.

Soon enough, my throat was starting to hurt from screaming so loud, evidently not Harry's. So I was the wimp of the night and said, "Okay, okay! You win!"

He cleared his throat and said, "Oooh you sure about that?"

"Yes! I'm finished!" I exclaimed, laughing. I looked over to Bell and she was giving the road ahead of her a death glare. When I noticed this I added, "Plus, Annabel is probably going deaf."

She pulled out one of her earphones and practically screamed, "You got that damn right!"

Harry laughed, she probably talked so loud that he could hear her. I was still on speaker phone so I heard everyone rejoicing since we decided to stop playing. Harry told them all to shut up and then took me off of speaker. Finally he said, "Well then I am the reigning champion."

"Oh shut up! I _will _win sometime," I forced.

He laughed briefly and then slowly added, "Oh you will, huh? Well then I guess we'll be friends for a really long time."

And at that moment I actually hoped so.

_**March 5**__**th**__**, 2011**_

"Where are you going?"

My mum just came home and it was eight PM on a Saturday night. I don't think that was just 'a late night at work' since she works in a cake bakery. But what I found funny was that she was asking me where I was going whereas she comes home four hours later than usual. My eyes glared at her up and down.

"Out," I replied shortly. She wasn't telling me where she had been going for like the past month, I certainly wasn't going to notify her of my whereabouts.

"Evie." She glared at me now. I noticed that her hair looked nicer than usual. It was curled almost perfectly and she was wearing intense eye shadow, eye liner and even a hint of lip gloss. I don't know about you, but I definitely do not go to bake cakes in that type of get up.

All these thoughts plagued me enough to ask, "Mum are you sure you were working late?"

She sighed heavily and actually answered, "No, I was at a dinner if you _must _know."

"Were you with a guy?" I could tell my playful tone was irritating her. She definitely was with a guy, I could tell by that look she was giving me.

She sighed again. "Maybe, all right?"

"Oooh." I was acting like a total child and I don't know why.

I was probably texting all the boys for too long. Their habits have been rubbing off on me. Ever since the night of the concert, all Annabel and I have ever done was text them. I was still mad about Harry not telling me he was technically famous. I knew it was kind of stupid or whatever, but I was a grudge holder, I will admit. No matter how much he made me laugh, or tried to make an effort to be friends I still couldn't forget the past and look forward. I was still considering that second chance, but I didn't know if I could do it. It's been two weeks and my feelings have stayed the same. Was that a sign? A sign that things wouldn't work out?

We were all great friends, though, Reyna included. I found that she had been dating Liam for such a long time before all the fame came into play and she honestly thought he was the only one she's ever genuinely loved. I felt so sad that everything had come to not work out at all, and the only one of the boys who wasn't acting like a complete tard about it all was Harry. She says now that they're all on good terms for the time being, so when I expressed my sorrows for her she said it was all right. It must be horrible, though. Having the one you love be with someone else and then ignore you like that and forget about your past together.

I would only hope that it never happens to me.

Which is why when I finally agreed to go out with Derek and see what he wanted to say to my face tonight, I was a little nervous. I was totally unsure if I should tell my mother or not.

"Well, why are you all dressed up?" Ugh now she was interrogating me. And what, dressed up? I looked down at my outfit. Whoa okay maybe I was a little dressy tonight. I was wearing a knee-length blue dress with various designs on it and ruffles at the bottom, but it was still straight down. Whatever, I wasn't going to change now.

"I'm going out." I decided to just copy what she said previously.

"With a guy?" Okay, now she was just mocking me.

"Yes, and if I don't leave now I'm going to be late so I'll see you when I get home." I grabbed my black leather jacket that was hanging over the table by the door. I tried to make my way out of the house when mum stopped me.

"Text me when you're coming home and then I want to talk to you." Oh God. Now I was a little rattled, she usually never wanted to have a talk with me, so it was a little skeptical. Hiding my anxiety, I nodded and then shoved myself out of the door and into the cold night.

"You look good."

Am I supposed to take that as a compliment? I just walked to the table that Derek was sitting at. It was an indoor or outdoor establishment and since it was fairly nice out tonight, he chose an outside table.

"Thanks," I replied as I sat down at the empty seat across from him. I just wanted to know what he wanted to talk to me about because when I saw his face I remembered why I was avoiding him. Because it was perfect.

He was a major asshole though. I could never again, I was done with him. I knew that for sure.

"It's been a while since we've talked . . . " He looked down at the tablecloth and fidgeted with his fingers. He then laughed nervously and continued, "I've missed you."

"W-what?" I couldn't believe this right now.

"Evie, I was such a jerk for saying all of that. It made me realize how much I actually do love you." He reached across the table and took my hand in his. "I think we should get back together."

Was he kidding me right now? I don't think so. Never. Again. "Derek, there's just one little problem." I cut my fake smile and blurted, "I don't love you anymore. I will never love you again, frankly I think you're a jerk and I don't even want to so much as be your friend let alone your girlfriend. And after you totally bashed me like that? On Valentine's Day?" I was furious right now, and seemed to be letting all my anger out. It actually felt really good, it was quite a rush. At this point, I was practically screaming, "You know, I've never met anyone so selfish, so arrogant! Why do you have to be so mean? Honestly, I wish that Jake had never set us up because then you, one of the biggest mistakes of my life would have never happened!"

I started to get up, because I was completely fed up with this 'dinner.' I was going to go home and just sleep for ten years when something that I least would have _ever, _in my wildest dreams expected, happened. I was stopped by a firm, practically painful hand grasping the bone of my wrist. I was forced to turn around when I was struck by his sweaty palms, twice. Hard.

My face was pulsating when before I knew it I was being pressed up against the hard brick wall to the side of the restaurant. I was surrounded by him, his face dangerously close to mine. His one hand was still clasped around my wrist tightly as he pointed a finger from his free hand in my face. He said lowly, "Don't talk to me like that."

I tried to make a sound, but I was flustered. The pain was overpowering my body and I couldn't speak. I was praying that this was just a nightmare and I was going to wake up at any time now. He raised a fist and I winced, waiting for it when suddenly . . .

I was saved.

Someone had come and clawed Derek off of me and shoved him away fiercely. He pushed Derek back harshly and punched him hard in the face. While Derek was trying to pull himself together, I was taken aback when I saw whose face was staring back at me with those gleaming green eyes.

It was Harry.

I was full on crying, wailing out now. Harry gestured over to me and engulfed his left arm around me, hugging me tight. When Derek finally stood up and bounced back, Harry slid off of me and went over and punched him again, harder than before this time in his face.

"Don't ever touch her _ever _again." Harry yelled at him and gave him a threatening look.

"Oh, what's this now? Who _are _you?" Derek then looked to me. "You little whore, were you cheating on me with this?" He pointed to Harry and then laughed. "Look at his hair! Hey curly, ever heard of a straightener?"

Harry stared at him and then retorted, "Don't call her that." He then reached for his jacket and pushed him back against the wall so that Derek's back was crushed. Harry hit him in the face on last time and then he sauntered over to me. When Derek turned around to face us, I could tell he was finished. He gave me a weird look and then ran away far from the restaurant. What a wimp.

But at this moment, I didn't care. I was sobbing, tears streaming down my bruised face. Harry turned to me and took both of his hands, removing mine from my face. Lightly he touched my cheek, where it hurt most. His touch was gentle and he looked at it skeptically, like a doctor would. He looked from there, to my eyes which were as hazed as ever. His face now looked serene.

I realized then that Harry was my savior. My rescuer. If he wasn't here, things could be ten times worse. I shuddered; it was a horrid thought to think about. "Are you all right?" He caressed my cheek, it was probably as red as ever.

Tears in my eyes, I shook my head vigorously and buried my head into his chest and cried into it, "Harry, thank you so much I don't know what I would have—"

"Shh. You're okay now." He stroked my hair and after a minute, I calmed down a bit and raised my head to look into his eyes. "Are you—"

I placed my hands around the back of his neck and cut him off, "You saved me."

I was still crying and I really wished that I could stop. He raised his hand to the back of his neck and took one of mine off of it and held it in his own, his palm placed around my fingers. We stood there looking at each other for a minute until I engulfed him in a gigantic hug. I needed him to be my comfort zone. I pulled him closer and closer and just squeezed him tight. I could never thank him enough. With my arms still around him, I rested my head into his shoulder. He did the same. "Promise me you'll never let go?"

I heard him mutter, "I promise."

I pulled away but kept my arms around him whilst staring into his beautiful green eyes. They again had a certain shine about them. My eyes wandered down from his to his lips. I leaned in and kissed them gently. When I broke away, I stayed close to his face and he leaned over and kissed my cheek and then wiped away my tears with his thumb gently.

He whispered, "Does it hurt?"

I nodded and added, "But I'm okay." I studied his face and released one hand from his side and played with one of his curls and whispered, "How can I ever thank you for this?"

He then took both of his huge hands, cupped my face softly and said seriously, "Just let me love you. And you love me in return."

**Hope you guys liked it wow what a cliffhanger.**

**Sorry if it was a little uh, different and whatnot but it had to be done. New chapter coming super soon. **

**Also, I'm making a new trailer for this story because well Evie isn't portrayed as Lucy Hale anymore but rather Vanessa Hudgens. Also her outfit for the night will be in the multimedia! :D check it out. Or on twitter PayneablexDream **


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